University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


"Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord  God,  that  I  will  send  a  famine 
in  the  land;  not  a  famine  of  bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  of  hearing 
the  words  of  the  Lord."— AMOS  viii:  n. 


SPIRITUAL  GIFTS 


THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA. 


A 

SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND  SPIRIT  MANIFESTATIONS. 


BY  M.  H.JJOND; 


"  Now  concerning  spiritual  gifts,  I  would  not  have  you  ignorant." — PAUL* 
"If  thou  knewest  the  gift  of  God."— JESUS. 


"When  he  ascended  up  on  high  he  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts 
unto  men, — 

And  he  gave  some  apostles,  and  some  prophets." — PAUL. 

"  Surely  the  Lord  God  will  do  nothing,  but  he  revealeth  his  secret  unto 
his  servants  the  prophets."— AMOS  iii:  7. 


PROVIDENCE,  R.  I. 


PREFACE. 


'HEISTIC  belief,  notwithstanding  the  absurdities  thai: 
cluster  around  it  and  the  difficulties  that  beset  it 
in  our  day,  is  still  too  precious — in  View  of  the 
incompleteness  of  this  life — to  relinquish  without  a  most 
serious  and  painful  struggle. 

With  Prof.  Clifford,  "  we  have  seen  the  spring  sun  shine 
out  of  an  empty  heaven  to  light  up  a  soulless  earth  ;  we  have 
felt  with  utter  lonliness  that  the  Great  Companion  is  dead." 
"  Without  God  and  without  hope  "  we  once  walked  through 
this  world. 

Now,  all  having  changed  with  us,  we  desire  to  aid  some 
soul  struggling  in  vain  in  the  meshes  woven  by  priestcraft, 
to  find  a  rational  basis  and  practical  ground  and  a  faith 
defensible  from  all  assault. 

Knowing  the  possibility  of  such  attainment,  our  desire  is 
to  humbly  point  the  way  out  of  the  labyrinth  of  human 
opinion  up  to  the  certitude  expressed  by  the  immaculate 
Son  of  God  when  He  said,  "  My  doctrine  is  not  mine,  but 
His  that  sent  me.  If  any  man  will  do  His  will  he  shall  know 
of  the  doctrine,"  by  expressing  what  that  doctrine  is,  obedi- 
ence to  which  brings  knowledge  of  the  true  character  of 
the  "son  of  the  carpenter,"  not  only  of  what  he  is  reported 
to  have  done,  but  what  he  does,  can  and  will  do  in  keeping 
with  the  statement  of  Paul,  "  Jesus  Christ — the  same  yester- 
day, to-day  and  forever." 

No  claim  of  erudition  is  made  by  which  the  writer's 
thought  is  presented  ;  towering  rhetoric  and  glittering  hyper- 


2  PREFACE. 

bole  may  prolong  the  discussion,  but  truth. was  and  we 
believe  is  to-day  best  served  by  straightforward  and  candid 
statement. 

If  plainness  of  speech  was  warranted  in  Paul's  day  as 
against  Greek  and  Roman  sophistry,  we  believe  we  shall  be 
able  to  show  that  the  world's  need  is  as  great  to-day  in  this 
direction,  as  against  the  conflicting  religious  theories  of  the 
day. 

Carlyle  has  said  that  "  the  soul  of  all  of  nature's  utterances 
is  perfect  music." 

Believing  that  Christianity  proper,  and  as  Christ  taught  it, 
is  not  at  war  with  itself ;  that  the  God  of  revelation  and  of 
the  Bible  is  the  God  who  created  the  natural  worlds  and  is 
always  in  harmony  with  himself;  that  Jesus  Christ — the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever  was  and  is  His  chosen  and 
authoritative  representative,  and  not  the  dead  Christ  of  human 
creed ;  that  the  promises  of  God  to  the  race  through  Him 
are  not  yea  and  nay — yes  in  the  first  century  and  no  to-day, 
but  that  "all  the  promises  are  yea  and  amen  to  the  glory  of 
God  "  and  to  our  satisfaction  who,  happily  learning  what  the 
will  of  God  is,  and  doing  it,  are  enabled  to  enter  the  portal 
that  leads  away  from  doubt  and  tradition  into  the  temple  of 
knowledge  concerning  spiritual  things. 

M.  H.  BOND. 


Spiritual  Gifts  and  Spiritual  Manifesta- 
tions. 

* 
BY  M.  H.  BOND. 

CHAPTER  I. 

IN  a  day  when  science  itself  is  grappling  with  professed 
spiritual  phenomena,  and  seeking  in  vain  a  natural  solu- 
tion of  its  mysterious  and  startling  manifestations,  igno- 
rance is  unwarranted  and  unbecoming  in  either  believer  or 
skeptic  who  may  have  rational  opportunity  to  obtain  light, 
the  everlasting  and  undeviating  harbinger,  as  well  as  the 
faithful  attendant  and  companion  of  truth. 

Profitableness,  or  practicability  in  spiritual  matters  must 
be  the  inevitable  and  solitary  test  which  the  rational  mind 
will  bring  to  bear  in  solution  of  these  questions. 

It  is  not  within  range  of  practical  discussion  designed  in 
this  pamphlet,  and  at  this  time,  to  enter  into  detailed  exam- 
ination of  all  the  phenomena  with  which  history  has  fur- 
nished us  'that  may  have  transcended  rational  explanation. 

From  the  days  of  Egyptian  necromancy  every  nation  and 
every  tribe  have  had  a  revelation,  and  an  oracle,  and  a 
manifestation  so  sacred  and.  so  entrenched  in  fond  desire 
of  a  preconceived  hope,  that  they  have  builded  for  it  an 
altar  and  a  covering  from  the  light  of  criticism,  and  of  sun- 
shine, and  of  the  day ;  have  placed  a  priest  to  guard  the 
place  and  presence  of  the  shekinah,  and  have  hastened  to 
pour  out  by  armies  their  life-blood  in  defense  of  toe  temple 
which  covered  all. 

Looking  back  over  the  waste  of  centuries,  what  shall  we 
say  of  this,  to  us,  blind  exhibition  of  misdirected  force  and 

3 


4  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

apparent  waste  of  human  energy?  Wnat  profit  for  them 
and  what  lesson  to  us  ? 

"  The  world  by  (its)  wisdom  knew  not  God,"  said  Paul, 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  Has  the  added  experience 
of  centuries  confirmed  or  denied  its  truth?  Have  the 
representations  of  God,  or  manifestations  of  natural  or 
supernatural ,  power,  given  tests  satisfactory  to  the  highest 
intelligence  possessed  by  the  nineteenth  century?  If  so, 
where  shall  we  find  these  manifestations  and  tests,  and 
when  found  will  they  abide  the  full  and  free  light  of  not 
only  the  present,  but  the  coming  day,  and  the  searching 
analysis  which  has  buried  so  many  ghosts  and  fables  of 
human  superstition  and  deception  in  the  past? 

"  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  ?  canst  thou  find 
out  the  Almighty  unto  perfection?"  is  the  sublime  language 
of  the  friend  of  Job.  "  It  is  as  high  as  heaven  ;  what  canst 
thou  do?  deeper  than  hell ;  what  canst  thou  know?  "  (JOB 
ii,  7  :  8).  And  yet,  is  knowledge  then  cut  off  from  higher 
sources  than  man  ?  If  so,  our  inquiry,  our  faith,  our  religion 
is  in  vain,  and  our  hope  must  end  in  blind  desire,  and  vain, 
though  fond  imagination.  Marching  on  over  the  graves  of 
buried  hopes  and  exploded  myths  of  religious  experiment 
toward  the  day  whose  dawning  reveals  naught  but  the  in- 
tellectual light  of  criticism,  shall  the  world  assemble  and  hear 
an  eloquent  burial  service  by  some  future  Ingersoll  of  all 
religions  that  postulate  a  theory  covering  more  than  the  span 
of  life  allotted  to  the  natural  man  ?  Is  there,  amid  all  the 
starry  worlds  of  this  vast  universe,  an  intelligence  higher 
than  man  ?  and  if  there  may  be,  is  it  in  the  eternal  order  of 
things  that  man  may  know?  Is  the  coming  day  to  be  a 
burial  or  a  resurrection  morn  of  that  hope  of  immortality 
that  forever  and  forever  besieges  the  human  soul  ? 

Supernatural  or  spiritual  gifts  or  manifestations  in  the  day 
of  Paul,  and  among  the  membership  of  that  body  or  associa- 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  5 

tion  of  religious  believers  called  saints  :  founded  and  organ- 
ized by  Jesus  Christ,  called  by  His  name,  officered  and 
equipped  under  His  own  direction,  were  the  gifts  which  He 
promised  to  the  believer  in  His  mission  to  mankind  that 
should  ever  follow  wherever  his  line  of  instructions  should 
be  observed.  (MATT,  xxviii  120.)  These  gifts  and  the 
physical  or  sensual  manifestations  or  exhibitions  of  them, 
partially,  at  least,  were  clearly  defined  to  the  unbeliever  by 
the  scene  upon  Pentecost  day,  and  subsequently  following 
the  ministry  of  the  church.  They  were  to  be  sent  by  the 
superior  power  in  vindication  of  the  promise  •  "  If  I  go 
away  I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless.  Nevertheless  I  tell 
you  the  truth :  it  is  expedient  that  I  go  away ;  for  if  I  go 
not  away,  the  Comforter, will  not  come  unto  you;  but  if  I 
depart,  I  will  send  Him  unto  you." 

Jesus,  who  was  called  the  Christ,  departed  from  this 
world  one  way  or  another — as  we  may  believe  according  to 
our  faith  or  our  traditions.  The  testimony  handed  down  to 
us  informs  us  that  faith  to  withstand  trials  and  death  were 
augmented,  and  comfort — such  as  was  promised  by  the 
founder  of  the  church — received  through  the  subtle  processes 
operating  upon  human  minds  and  bodies  through  operation 
of  the  spirit  which  was  one,  and  called  the  Holy  Ghost, 
but  diversified  in  its  manifestations  and  gifts  for  the  profit 
of  individual  persons,  adapted  to  their  constitution.or  nature, 
and  given,  not  as  a  sign  to  the  curiosity  or  wonder-seeker 
to  inspire  faith,  but  as  evidence  to  follow  the  believer  within 
the  magic'  circle  bounded  by  the  line  of  obedience  to  the 
command  "to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  "  he  had  "com- 
manded them,"  and  as  a  fulfilment  of  his  eternal  pledge, 
"Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  EVEN  UNTO  THE  END  OF  THE 
WORLD." 

An  attempt  to  render  this  promise  and  word  in  such  a 
way  as  to  circumscribe  its  fulfilment  to  the  limits  of  that  age, 


6  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

has  only  served  to  draw  a  pall  over  the  world's  hope  inspired 
by  the  fulfilment  of  the  pledges  made  to  the  church  by  its 
founder. 

Much  talk  is  made  of  this  as  a  progressive  age  and  day 
of  enlightenment.  In  things  material,  or  that  which  min- 
isters to  physical  ease  and  sensual  delight,  apart  from  the 
discomfort  that  will  always  attach  itself  to  high  mental  and 
spiritual  estates  in  the  presence  of  the  great  questions  that 
spring  out  of  the  issues  of  life  and  of  death  as  presented  to 
our  consciousness  still  unanswered,  I  grant  may  be 
true.  Knowledge  has  increased  according  to  the  prediction 
of  the  prophet,  but  that  kind  the  world  has  to  offer  still 
satisfies  not.  The  railroad  takes  us  no  nearer  heaven.  The 
telegraph  has  not  connected  us  with  the  unknown.  Hackael 
or  Darwin  have  not  yet  found  the  opening  that  leads  from 
death  to  life.  Spencer  no  alchemy  of  mental  or  physical 
force  sufficient  to  form  a  lens  whose  rays  shall  penetrate  the 
gloom  that  covers  the  dark  river  and  that  forever  separates 
humanity  from  the  unknown.  Col.  Ingersoll,  with  infinite 
wit,  or  mental  acumen,  does  "  not  know  whether  death  is  a 
wall  or  a  door,"  and  the  stricken  heart  of  the  world  with 
hands  stretched  across  the  new  made  grave  of  its  incom- 
pleted  life  and  ideal,  utters  still  the  olden  cry,  "  If  a  man 
die,  shall  he  live  again? " 

I  am  aware  of  claims  set  up  by  different  parties  opposed 
to  this  view  of  the  majority.  Some  of  the  principal  ones 
only,  which  claim  our  nearest  attention,  we  briefly  discuss. 

First — The  Christian  church  or  churches,  so  called,  of 
to-day,  say  to  us  that  the  pessimistic  or  skeptic  view  is 
unwarranted  by  the  facts  of  nature  and  ofs  revelation.  That 
nature  teaches  of  a  God,  and  of  a  bodily  resurrection,  and 
revelation  furnishes  us  with  the  superior  moral  code  and 
evidences  of  life  beyond  the  tomb. 

No  stronger  or  more  powerful  advocate  of  the  natural 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  7 

doctrine  in  favor  of  the  revealed  religion  of  immortality 
need  we  refer  to  than  Wilford  Hall ;  and  yet  this  champion 
of  religion,  and  professed  defender  of  the  Bible  and  of  the 
right  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  claim  of  being  the  world's 
authoritative  teacher,  says  in  his  "Problem  of  Life,"  p.  26^ 
that  "The  age  of  miracles  is  undeniably  past."  God,  he 
affirms,  no  longer  works  with  His  church  as  in  the  days  of 
Christ  and  his  Apostles  ;  but  the  only  remedy  proposed  for 
the  incoming  tide  of  modern  skepticism  is  an  increased 
store  of  worldly  wisdom  upon  the  part  of  Christ's  ministry ; 
meeting  the  assaults  of  infidelity  with  superior  skill  in 
erudition  ;  keener  logic  and  more  subtile  argument ;  and  he 
admits  if  these  fail  that  the  decadence  and  overthrow  of  the 
Christian  church  is  only  a  question  of  time. 

Human  wisdom  and  sagacity  aie  thus  still  to  be  made 
the  only  tests  of  religion,  and  of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the 
claim  of  divinity  made  for  Jesus  Christ  and  the  gospel  which 
bears  His  name,  and  the  war  against  infidelity  still  carried 
on  by  a  hundred  different  sects  with  as  many  different  faiths, 
with  the  patent  of  their  name  as  authority  to  promulgate 
whatever  the  fancy  of  theologians  may  dictate  as  gospel. 

Is  Jesus  Christ  to  blame  for  all  this  confusion,  and  is  the 
system  of  test  introduced  by  him  to  be  thrown  overboard 
because  men  have  changed  and  corrupted  it,  and  its  pro- 
fessed friends  deny  the  very  and  only  methods  authorized 
by  Him  through  which  a  KNOWLEDGE  of  God  by  and  through 
this  man  Christ  Jesus  was  to  be  obtained  ?  "  The  world  by 
(its)  wisdom  knew  not  God ;"  neither  yet,  confessedly,  does 
it  know  Him  ;  and  there  is  something  which  amounts  to 
absurdity  in  the  claim  that  this  multiplied  diversity  of 
human  opinions,  framed  into  creeds  and  canon  laws  and 
articles  of  faith,  with  their  kaleidoscopic  and  ever-changing 
front,  is  a  just,  a  faithful,  and  authoritative  representation  of 
the  everlasting  and  unchangeable  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 


8  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

11  He  that  believeth  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  believeth 
not  shall  be  damned."  Believe  what?  Heaven  help  us ; 
we  have  believed  so  much,  and  knew  so  little,  that  we  don't 
believe  anything  any  more,  and  what  is  left  of  belief  we  have 
to  keep  close  and  excluded,  or  it  will  be  spoiled ;  for  the 
image  breaker  is  abroad  in  the  land,  and  the  history  of  the 
religious  world  since  the  days  of  Constantine,  especially, 
must  largely  justify  the  reversal  of  the  anathema  by  say- 
ing, "  He  that  believeth  shall  be  damned,  and  he  that  be- 
lieveth not  shall  be  saved." 

Spiritual  gifts  were  the  gifts  of  God  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago.  Heaven  proposed  to  reach  men's  consciousness  through 
adaptation  of  the  message  to  their  capacity — a  school  in 
which  "  by  the  church  might  be  known  the  manifold  wisdom 
ofGod."(EpH.  iii,  9:10.)  Their  office  work  was  to  minister,  and 
supply  to,  the  wants  of  man  that  which  earthly  powers  could 
not  then,  neither  can  they  now,  supply.  Their  presence  with 
the  church  was  the  certain  test  of  not  only  His  love  and  will- 
ingness to  bless  those  who  united  their  fortunes  by  obedience 
to  His  law  and  commandments  with  Him  in  a  service  of 
salvation  toward  and  for  the  world,  but  also  of  supernatural 
and  extraordinary  power  exhibited  and  manifested  in  con- 
firmation of  the  word  which  he  commanded  them  to  teach. 

In  the  April  number  of  The  North  American  Review, 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll  opens  his  second  article  upon  "  Why  I 
am  an  Agnostic  "  by  saying,  "the  Christian  religion  rests  on 
miracles,"  and  that  "  in  order  for  miracles  to  be  of  any 
value,  they  would  have  to  be  perpetual."  Now  while  this  is 
saying  more  than  the  truth,  yet  no  unprejudiced  reader  of 
the  New  Testament  history  can  say  that  the  truth  is  not  in  it. 
Careless  readers  might  believe  Mr.  Ingersoll  meant  that  there 
was  little  else  but  miracles  as  a  foundation  on  which  to 
predicate  faith  in  the  system,  but  if  Mr.  Ingersoll  meant  to 
say  that  the  Christian  religion  proper,  included  miracles,  he 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  9 

would  say  right,  and  that  historical  and  second-handed  tes- 
timony in  regard  to  them  was  not  contemplated  by  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  religion  as  a  test  of  the  faith  of  the 
true  believer  in  Him. 

But  the  Christianity  that  Christ  taught  did  not  nor  does 
not  "rest  upon  miracles"  alone.  If  it  did,  the  claim  of  the 
Catholic  church  to  the  truth  of  its  dogmas,  and  the 
authority  alone  to  promulgate  salvation  or  pronounce  con- 
demnation would  be  hard  to  overthrow.  To  prove  our 
faith  by  human  affidavits  and  a  historical  gospel  alone,  is  to 
prove  altogether  too  much,  as  a  few  references  might  show. 

In  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  Hell,"  issued  by  the  "  Vatican 
Library"  in  New  York,  and  written  by  the  Rev.  Father 
Schouppe,  are  the  authenticated  accounts  of  miracles  from 
the  days  of  the  early  fathers  of  the  Christian  (Catholic) 
church  up  to  the  year  1860,  A.  D.,  as  proving  the  exist- 
ence of  a  hell,  and  of  the  particular  kind  taught  by  the 
Romish  church,  also  borrowed  from  her  and  defended  by 
Calvin  and  other  successors  in  Protestant  "Reformation." 

While  it  may  not  be  unreasonable  to  suppose  or  even 
unprofitable  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  hell,  yet,  the 
world  stands  confused  in  regard  to  the  certainty  of  its  local- 
ity, the  quality,  grade,  or  duration  of  punishment,  the 
design  of  its  establishment  or  the  character  of  its  author 
and  founder,  represented  or  misrepresented,  as  the  case 
may  and  must  be  by  somebody.  At  least  it  is  as  easy  to 
prove  by  theologians,  who  claim  to  be  the  only  authority, 
that  there  are  more  hells  than  one,  and  of  different  kinds, 
as  that  there  is  any  hell  at  all,  and  the  most  charitable  con- 
struction or  explanation  of  these  differences  and  contradic- 
tions fail  to  justify  us  in  believing  an  infinite,  just,  merciful 
and  all-wise  and  unchangeable  being  as  the  author  of  all, 
or  perhaps  any  of  them. 

Upon  "  the  infallible  word  of  God,"  says  Father  Schouppe, 


lo  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  stands  the  dogma  of  hell."  Quite  likely,  but  even  what 
purports  to  be  the  speech  of  God  upon  this  point  eighteen 
hundred  or  three  thousand  years  ago  has  been  so  disagreed 
upon  by  its  expounders  that  it  makes  unbelief  in  authorita- 
tive declaration  easy  in  this  age.  But  there  is  the  supple- 
ment, and,  to  the  devout  Catholic,  proof  of  itself,  in  the 
authenticated  accounts  furnished  by  the  church,  of  the  vis- 
ible and  sensible  return  of  those  who  wore  and  are  con- 
signed to  hell  and  its  flames ;  and  while  Universalists  and 
Liberals  in  religion  may  carry  off  honors  in  debate  with 
Father  Schouppe,  Calvin  or  Edwards,  in  regard  to  the  letter 
of  a  word  that  has  killed  so  many,  what  shall  we  say  of 
human  testimony  and  eye  witnesses ;  of  revelations  to  Cath- 
olic or  Protestant,  to  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  Ann  Lee,  Swe- 
denborg,  the  testimony  of  modern  Spiritualism,  etc.  ? 

In  the  pamphlet  quoted  on  "  Hell,"  page  49,  we  read : 
"Not  far  from  Lima  (1590)  dwelt  a  Christian  lady  who  had 
three  maid  servants,  one  of  whom,  called  Martha,  was  a 
young  Indian  of  about  sixteen  years.  Martha  was  a  Chris- 
tian, but  little  by  little  she  grew  cool  in  the  devotion  she  had 
displayed  at  first,  became  negligent  in  her  prayers,  and  light, 
coquettish  and  wanton  in  her  conversations.  Having  fallen 
dangerously  ill,  she  received  the  last  sacrament.  After  this 
serious  ceremony,  during  which  she  had  evinced  very  little 
piety,  she  said,  smiling  to  her  two  fellow-servants,  that  in 
the  confession  she  had  taken  good  care  not  to  tell  all  her 
sins  to  the  priest.  Frightened  by  this  language,  the  girls 
reported  to  their  mistress,  who,  by  dint  of  exhortation  and 
threats,  obtains  from  the  sick  girl  a  sign  of  repentance  and 
the  promise  to  make  a  sincere  and  Christian  confession. 
Martha  confesses  then,  over  again,  and  dies  shortly  after. 
Scarcely  had  she  breathed  her  last  when  her  corpse  emitted 
an  extraordinary  and  intolerable  stench.  They  were  obliged 
to  remove  it  from  the  house  to  a  shed.  The  dog  in  the 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIOXS.  n 

court  yard  howled  piteously,  as  if  he  were  undergoing  the 
torture.  After  the  interment  the  lady,  according  to  custom, 
was  dining  in  the  garden  in  the  open  air,  when  a  heavy 
stone  fell  suddenly  in  the  centre  of  the  table  with  a  horrible 
crash,  and  caused  all  the  table  equipments  to  spring,  but 
without  breaking  any  article.  One  of  the  servants,  having 
occupied  the  room  in  which  Martha  had  died,  was  awakened 
by  frightful  noises  —  all  the  furniture  seemed  to  be  moved 
by  an  invisible  forte  and  thrown  to  the  floor. 

"  We  understand  how  the  servant  did  not  continue  to  oc- 
cupy the  room.  Her  companion  ventured  to  take  her  place, 
but  the  same  scenes  were  renewed.  Then  they  agreed  to 
spend  the  night  together  there.  This  time  they  distinctly  heard 
Martha's  voice,  and  soon  that  wretched  girl  appeared  before 
them  in  the  most  horrible  state  and  all  on  fire.  She  said 
that  by  God's  command 'she  had  come  to  reveal  her  condi- 
tion to  them ;  that  she  was  dajnned  for  her  sins  of  impurity 
and  the  sacrilegious  confessions  she  had  continued  to  make 
until  death. 

"  The  fire  of  hell  is  a  real  fire,  a  fire  that  burns  like  this 
world's  fire,  although  it  is  infinitely  more  active.  Must  not 
there  be  a  real  fire  in  hell,  seeing  that  there  is  a  real  fire  in 
purgatory?"  (Pages  50,  51.) 

In  the  year  1870  Mgr.de  Segur  relates  :  "On  the  4th 
of  November,  1859,  died  of  a  stroke  of  apoplexy,  at  the 
Convent  of  the  Franciscians  of  Foligino,  a  good  sister  named 
Theresa  Gesta.  Twelve  days  after,  a  sister  named  Anna 
Felicia,  who  replaced  her  in  her  oifice,  went  up  to  the  ward- 
robe, and  was  about  to  enter,  when  she  heard  moans  which 
seemed  to  come  from  the  interior  of  this  room.  Somewhat 
alarmed,  she  hastened  to  open  the  door.  No  one  was  there, 
but  new  moans  resounded,  so  clearly  articulated  that,  despite 
her  usual  courage,  she  felt  seized  by  fear.  '  Jesus,  Mary  ! ' 
she  exclaimed,  '  what  is  this?'  She  had  not  finished  when 


12  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

she  heard  a  plaintive  voice  accompanied  by  this  mournful 
sigh  :  '  Oh  my  God,  how  I  suffer  ! '  The  shocked  sister 
recognized  at  once  the  voice  of  poor  Sister  Theresa.  Then 
the  whole  hall  was  filled  with  a  dense  smoke,  and  the  ghost 
of  Sister  Theresa  appeared,  moving  toward  the  door  while 
gliding  by  the  wall.  Having  reached  almost  the  door,  she 
exclaimed  forcibly,  '  This  is  a  sign  of  the  mercy  of  God  ! ' 
and  saying  this  she  struck  the  highest  panel  of  the  door, 
leaving  hollowed  in  the  charred  wood  a  most  perfect  stamp 
of  her  right  hand*;  then  she  disappeared." 

The  smell  of  charred  wood  and  the  impress  of  Sister 
Theresa's  hand  was  recognized  by  all  the  company  that  this 
frightened  sister  called  in  in  her  astonishment  and  fright. 
According  to  farther  account,  the  next  day  she  appeared  to 
her  in  her  cell,  calling  her  by  name.  "At  the  same  time  an 
al]  resplendent  sphere  of  light  appears  before  her,  lighting 
up  the  cell  as  if  by  noonday,  and  she  hears  Sister  Theresa, 
who  with  a  joyous  triumphant  voice  utters  these  words  :  '  I 
died  on  Friday,  the  day  of  the  passion,  and  behold  on 
Friday  I  depart  for  glory.'  Then,  adding  affectionately, 
'adieu,  adieu,  adieu,'  she  becomes  transfigured  into  a  thin, 
white,  dazzling  cloud ;  she  flies  away  to  heaven  and  van- 
ishes." (Pages  52  and  53.) 

One  more  account,  among  scores  of  like  testimonies,  and 
the  last  in  the  book,  tells  us  of  a  general  of  the  Northern 
army  in  the  war  of  1860,  a  devout  Catholic,  whose  wife,  a 
fervent  Protestant,  was  about  to  die.  The  general,  with  atten- 
dants, began  to  draw  their  beads,  and  praying  on  their  knees 
for  one  hour,  find  her  in  syncope,  without  consciousness. 
"At  the  end  of  some  time,"  says  the  account,  "  returning  to 
herself  and  looking  at  her  husband,  she  said  to  him  in  a  very 
intelligible  voice,  '  Call  a  Catholic  priest ! — I  beg,'  she  says, 
'  for  a  Catholic  priest  without  delay.'  '  But,  my  dear,  you 
would  not  have  one.'  'Ah,  general,  I  am  entirely  changed ; 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  13 

God  has  shown  me  hell  and  the  place  that  awaited  me  in 
the  eternal  fire,  if  I  did  not  become  a  Catholic?  " 

A  literal  hell  of  physical  fire  are  among  the  literal  cer- 
tainties revealed  with  astounding  and  convincing  occular 
demonstrations  according  to  this  and  other  Catholic  history 
for  those  who  neglect  confession  to  their  priests  or  who 
renounce  her  dogmas. 

Our  experience  laughs  at,  or  our  faith  contradicts  all  this 
testimony,  but  we  swing  over  to  an  investigation  of  modern 
spiritualism  and  find  just  as  astonishing  and  astounding 
things  faithfully  testified  and  certified  to  by  intelligent, 
conscientious  witnesses,  baffling  modern  science  in  their 
attempts  to  explain  the  modern  phenonmenon  of  meta- 
physical, physical,  or  other  force,  claiming  for  its  authorship 
the  presence  of  spirits  that  have  inhabited  bodies  here  upon 
earth.  Their  testimony,  however,  while  admitting  the  pos- 
sible or  probable  return  of  the  Catholic  dead  to  this  world 
of  ours,  flatly  contradicts  the  nations,  opinions  or  statements 
made  concerning  the  orthodox  hell,  the  causes  which  landed 
them  there,  the  punishment  inflicted,  duration,  character,  or 
the  means  by  which  a  soul  may  be  delivered  from  the  inter- 
mediate state,  (purgatory). 

Immanuel  Swedenborg  has  conversed  with  Plato,  Des- 
cartes and  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  sober  testimony. 
Like  other  revelations  from  other  sources,  or  more  properly 
speaking,  through  other  sources  or  channels,  however,  the 
supernatural  conforms  to  the  natural,  and  agrees  to  a  dis- 
tressing extent  with  the  individual  notion,  preconceived 
idea  and  former  education. 

The  orthodox  world  say,  there  was  a  sign,  a  revelation, 
a  spiritual  gift,  with  the  church  in  the  beginning,  but  there 
are  none  now,  none  needed — "ceased  with  the  apostolic 
commission,"  though  denied  by  Wesley  and  other  reformers. 

The  Catholic  church  still  says  that  supernatural  manifes- 


I4  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

tation  and  the  return  of  the  dead  have  since,  and  now  do 
testify  to  the  truth  of  her  dogmas. 

Spiritualism's  messengers  deny  the  dogmas  but  affirm  the 
return  of  the  dead,  and  with  physical  "  sign  "  and  mental  or 
metaphysical  "  wonder  "  the  "  medium  "  and  high  priestess  of 
the  new  evangel  undertake  to,  and  do  and  will,  as  they  always 
have  in  all  ages  and  among  all  religions  when  the  "  condi- 
tions "  are  favorable,  satisfy  a  hungry  world — a  world  hun- 
gry and  starving  for  more  light,  more  facts,  more  truth,  in 
regard  to  the  issues  of  life  as  they  are  presented  to  the  cir- 
cumscribed vision  of  mortals. 

We  say  they  are  satisfied  when  the  "conditions"  "sur- 
roundings" and  circumstances  are  favorable.  Of  what  faith 
or  belief,  no  matter  how  absurd  it  may  appear  in  the  light 
which  time  and  critical  analysis  affords,  may  not  this  be 
truthfully  said  ? 

What  is  truth  ?  Where  is  it  to  be  found,  and  what  are 
the  tests  to  be  imposed  ? — so  that  not  only  in  the  end,  but 
now,  we  may  be  satisfied  that  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  in  religion  will  find  us  possessed  masters  of  the  key 
of  eternal  knowledge  and  of  the  fact  that  we  have  not  been 
deceived  by  mortals  or  immortals,  men  or  spirits ;  or  must 
we  still  go  on  and  down  to  the  grave  with  choice  only 
between  entire  negation  and  abnegation  of  hope  or  happi- 
ness save  that  only  which  this  brief  span  may  be  made  to 
furnish.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  of  a  faith  only,  which  the 
light  of  the  coming  morrow  may  turn  to  fable ;  a  faith  of 
inferences,  of  human  analogy ;  a  faith  that  stands  in  con- 
stant need  of  shifting  base,  and  argument  and  expedients 
in  order  to  maintain  the  hope  which  it  is  supposed  to  cover 
or  defend  ?  Will  it  always  be  true  that 

"Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast, 
faan  never  is  but  always  to  be  blest." 

Nowhere  has  there  been   heralded  the  uncertainty  that 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  15 

prevades  the  intellectual  world  to-day  in  regard  to  re- 
ligious questions  more  clearly  than  by  the  leading  daily 
journals  in  this  country  in  their  editorial  discussion  concern- 
ing religious  instruction  in  our  public  schools.  S^ys  one 
of  the  leading  daily  journals  of  New  England,  in  an 
editorial,  in  opposition  to  the  view  of  Cardinal  Manning 
in  regard  to  this  question  :  "  If  religion  were  a  matter  of 
science,  and  consequently  beyond  dispute,  the  schools  might 
teach  it  as  they  teach  mathematics  and  other  subjects  of  an 
equally  certain  character.  But  it  is  not.  The  interpretation 
of  Christianity  is  a  matter  of  opinion,  and  a  matter  as  to 
which  differences  of  opinion  are  strongly  marked." 

"  What  is  the  Almighty,  that  we  should  serve  Him  ?  and 
what  profit  should  we  have  if  we  pray  unto  Him?"  (JOB 
xxi,  15.)  "We  know  so  little,"  says  William  Lloyd  Garri- 
son *  "of  the  great  mystery  that  surrounds  us  here  and  of  the 
laws  which  guide  our  footsteps,  that  to  serious  minds  the 
flippant  assumptions  of  theology  seem  profane." 

With  these  facts  before  us,  may  we  not  with  Job  be 
tempted  to  say,  "What  profit  should  we  have  if  we  pray 
unto  him,"  or  what  is  the  use  of  being  religious  at  ail? 
It  is  certainly  true  that  a  candid  survey  of  the  field  of 
Letters  in  the  religious  and  skeptical  world  certainly 
tends  to  a  confusion  of  the  natural  mind.  The  French 
school  states  that  mankind  is  approaching  a  period 
of  complete  outgrowth  of  the  religious  idea,  and  that 
man  is  destined  to  become  a  non-religious  being.  An- 
other school  of  philosophers  will  insist  upon  the  culti- 
vation of  the  religious  idea  as  really  necessary  to  the 
harmonious  development  of  man  in  the  employment  and 
discipline  of  all  of  the  finer  forces  of  his  being.  That 
prayer,  for  instance,  is  not  necessarily,  or  altogether,  a  vain 

*  Liberal  Union  Club,  Boston.  Speec.i  on  "What  Religions  Can 
Liberals  Give  their  Children?" 


1 6  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

exercise ;  but  rather  a  practical,  mental,  sesthetical  and 
moral  gymnasium  and  drill,  praying  at  a  dead  mark,  with 
the  idea  of  an  answer  from  any  source,  of  course,  excluded  ; 
but  simply  an  echo  of  our  own  voices  that  may  mark  the 
progress  we  may  have  made  in  the  development  of  ourselves 
by  the  aid  of  forces  which  lie  within  ourselves  alone. 

The  adherents  of  both  these  modern  schools  of  thought 
are  not  only  not  insignificant  in  numbers,  especially  the  lat- 
ter, but  in  intellectual  development,  and  even  moral  stand- 
ing, commercial  integrity  and  respectability,  no  longer  rank 
low  in  society  to-day. 

If  infidelity,  then,  since  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  has  made  such  rapid  strides  towards  popularity, 
what  wonder  that  revolutionary  France  should  be  now  rais- 
ing a  school  of  intellectual  philosophers  the  first  article  of 
whose  creed  should  be,  "  No  religion " — that  the  time  for 
regarding  worship  as  a  waste  of  time  and  human  energy  had 
come. 

How  is  the  ambassador  of  Christ  to  face  these  problems  ? 
and  how  may  he  expect  to  win  proselytes  to  His  name  and 
a  church  which  is  called  after  his  name,  in  view  of  the  wide- 
spread and  almost  universal  and  now  made  popular 
skepticism — engendered,  fostered,  encouraged,  and  grown 
by  the  terrible  spectacle  of  religion,  whose  banners 
His  name  has  given  prestige  to,  and  enforced  by  the  power 
of  a  fleshy  arm  imposed  by  the  very  summit  of  the  genius  of 
bigotry,  cruelty,  superstition,  fanaticism  and  revenge. 

If  religion  for  sixteen  centuries,  according  to  the  popular 
verdict  of  the  nineteenth  century,  has  proved  as  much  a 
curse  as  a  blessing — as  much  of  a  bar,  as  an  incentive  to 
human  progress — may  and  will  not  the  coming  man  who  de- 
fends religion  and  churches  and  worship  and  prayers,  have 
to  be  possessed  of  better  material  for  intelligent  argument, 
higher  wisdom,  better  tests,  or  a  better  key  to  unlock  the 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFES TA  TIONS.  1 7 

mysteries  that  now  covers  humanity  like  a  pall,    than   his 
predecessors  ? 

The  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.  D.,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Ingersoll, 
in  the  article  refered  to  in  the  subsequent  (April)  number 
of  the  North  American  Review  *  says  that  "Joseph  Cook 
and  Dr.  J.  L.  Wi throw  have  stood  in  the  very  forefront  of 
the  conservative  party  in  the  orthodox  church  in  its  recent 
controversies  concerning  the  future  of  the  heathen,  and  they 
have  both  contended  vigorously  that  an  acceptance  of 
Christianity  is  not  essential  to  salvation,  that  on  the  con- 
trary, myriads  of  pagans  will  be  found  to  have  entered  into 
eternal  life  without  any  knowledge  of  Christ  or  his  religion" 

It  might  be  well  to  contrast  this  statement  of  these  cham- 
pions of  a  "historical  Christ"  with  the  statements  of  Christ 
himself :  "  And  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life,  and  they 
shall  never  perish,  neither  shall  any  man  pluck  them  out  of 
My  hand."  (JOHN  x,  28  :  29.) 

If  Plato  or  Buddah  can  do  the  same  for  humanity,  what 
pre-eminence  substantially  has  the  "Christian  religion  "  over 
other  systems. 

Again,  "  And  THIS  is  LIFE  ETERNAL,  to  know  that  the  only 
true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent.  (JOHN, 
xvii,  3.) 

"No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me."  (JOHN  xiv,6.) 

"  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God  hath  the  witness  in 
himself:  he  that  believeth  not  God  hath  made  him  a 'liar; 
because  he  believeth  not  the  record  that  God  gave  of  His  Son" 

And  this  is  the  record,  that  God  hath  given  unto  us  eternal 
life,  and  this  life  (not  some  other  life), 'is  IN  His  SON." 
(I  JOHN  v,  10  :  n.) 

It  is  evident  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  or  some  one  else  has 
partly  converted  these  befogged  theologians,  and  that  they 
do  not  believe  the  record  that  God  gave  of  His  Son. 

*  Flaws  in  Ingersollism,  page  447. 


*8  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

We  will  take  the  reader  back  in  Bible  history  to  a  scene 
in  a  city  of  Samaria  called  Sychar,  and  near  to  Jacob's  welL 
In  his  speech  to  the  Samaritan  woman,  Jesus  here  says : 
"  But  whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him 
shall  never  thirst;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall 
be  in  him  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting  life ;  " 
and  also  to  her  :  "  If  thou  knewest  the  gift  of  God,  and  who 
it  is  that  saith  unto  thee,  '  give  me  to  drink,'  thou  woulds't 
have  asked  of  him,  and  he  would  have  given  thee  living 
water" 

"  The  wages  of  sin  is  death,  but  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal 
life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord"  said  Paul.  Sin 
also  is  defined  by  him  as  "  a  transgression  of  law,"  and 
that  "  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me 
free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  of  death."  (ROM.  viii,  2.) 
Death  and  sin  are  the  terrible  facts  of  our  human  existence. 
The  cure  is  to  be  found,  not  in  the  realm  of  no  law,  lawless- 
lessness,  but  in  knowledge  of  and  obedience  to  law — eternal, 
unchangeable  law.  As  God  is  eternal,  so  must  his  law  be. 
"There  is  a  spirit  in  man."  •  If  so,  rationally  as  well  as 
scripturally,  there  must  be  a  law  governing  that  spirit  that  is 
just  as  authoritative  and  just  as  arbitrary  as  is  the  inexorable 
law  that  governs  the  physical  or  material  forces  of  nature. 
That  law  is  the  law  of  the  spirit,  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus — the 
gospel.  "Whoso  looketh  into  the  perfect  law"  said  James, 
"and  continueth  therein,  he  being  not  a  forgetful  hearer, 
but  a  doer  of  the  work,  this  man  shall  be  blessed  in  his 
deed."  (JAMES  i,  25.) 

"  Go  preach  THE  gospel  to  every  creature ;  he  that 
believeth  (it)  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  believeth  not  shall 
be  damned,  or  condemned."  It  was  authoritative,  and  no 
hesitancy  or  juggling  expedients  were  to  be  allowed  in  its 
proclamation  in  order  to  enlarge  the  following  or  please  the 
people.  Men  were,  as  now,  in  sin  and  darkness,  and  igno- 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  19 

ranee  and  death.  There  was  no  time  to  apologize  for  the 
truth.  It  was  open  and  fair  as  the  day  ;  honest  men  could 
test  it.  "If  any  man  would  do  he  should  know."  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  sent  of  God  defined  the  terms  upon  which 
knowledge  and  not  opinion  of  his  true  character  could  be 
had.  And  this  knowledge  was  the  key  to  life  eternal  in 
contradistinction  to  all  other  forms  of  life,  and  upon  obed- 
ience to  that  apostolic  commission  (since  so  garbled  and 
abused)  a  constituency,  a  church  and  an  organization 
was  founded  by  illiterate  fishermen,  whose  influence  has 
stood  the  assault  of  centuries ;  for,  great  as  has  been  the 
apostacy  and  corruption  of  the  methods  and  work  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  of  his  chosen  apostles,  still  is  it  better  than 
something  worse.  Still  brightly  and  transcendently  beams 
across  this  waste  of  blood  nnd  tears,  of  cruel  bigotry  and 
religious  persecution  and  intolerance,  the  sublimity  and 
grandeur  of  the  moral  character  and  unparalleled  heroism 
of  this  man  of  sorrows. 

But,  was  he  not  and  is  he  not  to  day  something  more 
than  a  profound  and  practical  moralist,  a  wondrous  and 
superlative  combination  and  exhibition  of  human  attain- 
ment ?  Men  that  talk  that  way  and  think  that  way  do  not 
Itnow  him,  neither  on  the  other  hand  could  any  man  say, 
now  or  then,  that  Jesus  is  Lord  and  not  man,  only  through 
the  key  of  knowledge  furnished  by  obedience  to  the  com- 
mission, "  Go  teach  all  nations.,  baptizing  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  teach- 
ing them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  com- 
manded you,  and  lo  !  I  am  with  you  always  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world." 

And  yet  He  was  not  to  be  with  them.  Why  this 
paradox?  For  "Now,"  said  He,  (JOHN  xvi :  5,  6,  7,  13), 
"  I  go  my  way  to  Him  that  sent  me,  but  because  I  have 
said  these  things  unto  you,  sorrow  hath  filled  your  heart ; 


20  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

nevertheless  I  tell  you  the  truth  !  It  is  expedient  that 
I  go  away;  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not 
come  unto  you  ;  but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  Him  unto  you," 
but  "  When  He,  the  spirit  of  truth  is  come,  He  will  guide 
you  into  all  truth  •  and  he  will  shew  you  things  to  come," 
and  not  only  was  this  to  apostles  but  to  the  hearer,  the 
believer,  the  doer  of  the  word,  for  said  Peter  on  Pentecost 
day,  "  This  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  to  you  and  to  your 
children  and  to  all  that  are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the 
Lord  our  God  shall  call."  (Acrs  ii  38  :  39). 

Is  the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  modern  vestry  that  same  influ- 
ence or  spiritual  power  that  Jesus  Christ  promised  to  send 
as  his  faithful  representative  ?  Does  the  power  sought  and 
obtained  at  modern  religious  revivals  answer  in  physical 
description,  intellectual  result  or  harmonious  conformity  to 
the  New  Testament  literature  upon  that  subject !  Oh 
no  !  Said  Peter,  acting  under  the  commission  of  the  Mas- 
ter :  "  Having  received  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he 
hath  shed  forth  this  which  ye  now  see  and  hear." 

What  did  they  see  and  hear  in  men  under  the  influence  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  ?  Something, 
certainly,  that  you  do  not  see  or  hear  in  modern  Christian 
churches,  who  still  absurdly  claim  that  it  is  the  same  spirit, 
representing  the  Father  of  Infinite  Truth  and  Love,  and 
Jesus  Christ,  His  Son. 

Are  and  have  the  Popes  of  the  Romish  church  been  the 
true  apostles  and  representatives  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  acting 
under  the  direction  of  trie  spirit  of  truth  in  publishing  from 
time  to  time  the  contradicting  dogmas  of  that  church  as  the 
authoritative  and  infallible  word  of  God.  The  most  charitable 
Protestant  will  not  say  that,  and  if  they  are  not  true  apostles, 
they  are  false  ones.  We  safely  say  at  least,  they  are  and 
were  mistaken,  but  Mr.  Abbot  says  that  the  Romish  church 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  21 

is  Christian*  "The  Christian  spirit,"  he  says,  "is  the 
spirit  of  loyalty  to  Christ."  A  common  statement,  but  very 
ambiguously  defined.  True  loyalty  and  discipleship  are 
inseparable.  "  Ye  are  my  friends  if  ye  do  whatsoevei  I 
command  you,"  said  He,  and  to  those  Jews  which  believed 
on  Him — "  If  ye  continue  in  my  word,  then  are  ye  my 
disciples  indeed,  and  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free" 

What  have  we  to-day,  instead  of  truth?  Error,  falsehood, 
belief  at  best,  instead  of  knowledge,  speculative  theology, 
changing  creed  and  opinion,  quarrel  among  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Jesus  Christ  as  to  what  he  meant  by  what  He  is 
reported  to  have  said  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago.  No 
authoritative  declaration  from  pulpit  that  intelligent  pew 
renters  feel  bound  to  respect.  Mr.  Garrison  says  :"  The 
pews  direct,  and  the  preacher  obeys."  We  are  living  at  a 
period  that  seems  to  mark  the  ebb  tide  of  religious  belief.f 
The  church  may  be  moral  but  it  is  mysterious,  and  the 
tendency  of  sentiment  is  that  ignorance  looks  up  to,  and 
intelligence  looks  down  upon,  the  modern  pulpit,  and  the 
almost  unseemly  haste  to  abandon  old  positions  under  the 
assaults  of  modern  skepticism  is  proof  of  this. 

The  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.  D.,  says  of  Jesus  Christ,  in 
reply  to  Mr.  Ingersoll :  "  His  message  was  very  simple, 
and  yet  the  world  has  not  yet  become  weary  of  listening  to  it, 
and  to-day,  when  a  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  a  Philip  Brooks, 
a  Dwight  L.  Moody,  quietly  ignoring  the  additions  and 
corruptions  of  a  later  scholasticism,  goes  back  to  the  simple 
teaching  of  this  Galilean  rabbi,  throngs  gather  to  hear  the 
teaching,  as  they  did  when  it  was  first  given  on  the  shores 
of  the  lake  of  Geneseret." 

In  view  of  the  different  interpretations  which  these  noted 

*  North  American  Review,  April  Number,  Page  456. 
fSpeech  at  Liberal  Union  Club,  Boston. 


22  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

divines  have  given  us  of  the  "simple  teaching  of  this  Gali* 
lean  rabbi,"  there  seems  to  be  more  poetry  than  facts  in  this 
statement.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  have  fostered  rather 
than  ignored  the  "  additions  and  corruptions  of  a  later 
scholasticism,"  and  it  will  be  found  that  it  is  too  soon  to 
say  that  "  the  world  has  not  yet  become  weary  of  listening  " 
to  the  message  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  it  has  not  for  centuries 
had  the  opportunity,  and  we  shall  be  bold  enough  to  say  that 
the  Christ  himself,  coming  under  guise  of  lowly  and  unpop- 
ular surroundings  as  at  first,  hidden  under  garb  of  human- 
ity, having  as  before,  "  no  form  of  beauty  or  comeliness  "  to 
attract  the  senses,  organizing  a  church  after  primitive  pat- 
tern, a  system  of  faith  and  obedience  to  certain  principles, 
and  called  "  my  doctrine"  promising  as  a  result  that  he  who 
should  obey,  should  "know ;"  that  signs  mentioned  should  fol- 
low the  believer  as  of  old — who  does  not  know,  or  believe  at 
least,  that  there  is  not  a  church  on  earth,  or  popular  min- 
ister but  that  would  reject  him  ?  But,  and  if  he  should  send, 
by  whom  he  would,  in  answer  to  Wesley's  prayer, 

"Almighty  God  of  Love, 

Set  up  the  attracting  sign, 
And  summon  whom  thou  dost  approve 

As  messengers  divine," 

and  that,  "according  to  the  scripture  "  and  as  it  is  "  written," 
would  it  help  matters  ?  Oh,  no ;  if  they  know  not  the 
master  how  could  they  recognize  his  servants,  for,  "  when 
the  son  of  man  shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  all  the  holy 
angels  with  him,  then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his 
glory ;  and  before  him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations  ;  and 
he  shall  separate  them,"  etc.,  "  and  shall  say  unto  them  on 
his  right  hand,  Come  ye  blessed — and  to  them  on  the  left 
hand,  Depart  from  me."  Why  ?  "  For  I  was  an  hungered 
and  ye  gave  me  no  meat ;  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  no 
drink  ;  I  was  a  stranger  and  ye  took  me  not  in  ;  naked,  and 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  23 

ye  clothed  me  not  •  sick  and  in  prison,  and  ye  visited  me 
not."  "  Then  shall  they  also  answer  him,  saying,  Lord, 
when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered  or  athirst — and  did  not 
minister  unto  thee?"  Then  he,  the  King,  shall  answer  and 
say  unto  them,  inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto  the  least  of 
these,  my  brethren,  ye  did  it  not  unto  me."  (MATT,  xxv : 
3x-46.) 

Where,  to-day,  are  those  "brethren"  of  Jesus  Christ? 
When  the  Lord  comes,  the  world  ("nations")  will  evidently, 
if  this  be  true,  not  know  them,  and  we  are  commanded  to 
treasure  up  his  words  that  we  be  not  deceived.  .  Evidently 
they  are,  or  will  be  masquerading  under  the  disguise  of  a 
religion  unknown  and  unrecognized  in  the  popular  religious 
world  to  day,  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 

With  people  who  have  become  accustomed  to  the  sound 
of  confusion  wrought  by  modern  Babel  builders  in  their 
efforts  to  penetrate  the  clouds  with  towering  rhetoric  and 
laud  with  glowing  panegyric  the  names  of  Christ  and  the 
martyrs  of  truth,  these  statements  may,  some  of  them,  seem 
harsh  or  uncharitable. 

We  have  no  war  upon  men  or  societies,  and  it  would  be 
as  foolish  as  it  would  be  unjust  to  fail  to  recognize  the  good 
in  both — the  splendid  record  of  sacrifice,  of  moral  and 
physical  heroism — in  both  Catholic  and  Protestant  history. 
But  it  is  one  of  the  sublime  and  everlasting  qualities  of 
"charity"  as  Paul  has  defined  that  term,  or  the  greatest  of 
Christian  graces,  that  it  does  not  consist  altogether  in  giving 
our  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  or  baring  our  backs  to  blows, 
or  burning,  or  death,  but  that  it  "rejoiceth  in  the  truth." 
••'Thinketh  no  evil,"  nor  is  it  neccessarily  evil  to  think, 
believe,  know  or  even  tell  the  truth. 

The  Romish  religion  is  a  "form"  of  the  Christian  religion, 
says  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.  D. ,  but  "  the  church  "  Romish 


24  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

and  Protestant,  "is  itself  half  Theseus,  half  Centaur."*  What 
a  confession  !  After  sixteen  centuries  of  improvement  upon 
the  methods  introduced  by  Christ  to  turn  out  this  hybrid- 
ious  monster  as  a  result,  and  though  he  prove  to  Mr.  Inger- 
soll  or  others  that  it  is  better  than  something  worse,  it  does 
not  relieve  him,  as  a  professed  representative  of  Jesus  Christ, 
of  the  charge  of  inconsistency,  no  more  than  will  his  "  chari- 
table "  attempt  to  harmonize  or  eulogize  Catholic  or  Pro- 
testant churches  as  essentially  Christian  in  the  light  of  that 
"word  "  by  which  himself  and  all  are  to  be  judged  "  in  the 
last  day."  The  Romish  religion  is  a  "  form  "  of  the  "Chris- 
tian religion,"  and  yet  the  Rev.  Edward  Beecher,  brother 
of  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  to  whose  pulpit  in  Ply- 
mouth church  the  Rev.  Dr.  Abbott  has  succeeded,  says 
that,  "the  iQth  chapter  of  Revelations  contains  a  prophecy 
of  the  coming  events  in  the  twentieth  century,  and  that 
chapter  opens  with  rejoicings  over  the  downfall  of  a  corrupt, 
anti-  Chf  istian  corporation,  which  is  none  other  than  the 
Church  of  Rome."|  The  reader  does  not  care  to  be 
wearied  with  other  citations  irom  Protestant  sources  high 
and  low  to  the  same  effect. 

Gladstone  and  Bismarck  have  said  "that  the  man  who 
gives  his  allegiance  to  Rome  cannot  be  loyal  to  his  own 
government,"  and  a  hundred  ex-priests  and  "  reformed  " 
nuns,  expose  in  pulpit  and  #pon  platform  to-day,  the 
unchristian  character  of  the  church  whose  only  apostle  sits 
as  supreme  dictator  in  religious  matters  and  authoritative 
declaration  in  the  seat  in  which  St.  Peter  never  sat  at  Rome. 
And  the  mother  church,  through  her  faithful  ministers,  in 
turn  exposes  the  anti-Christian  and  anti-Bible  position  of 
the  Church  of  England,  as  well  as  other  Protestant  churches, 

*Flaws  in  Ingersollism,  North  American  Review,  April  Number, 
current  year. 

fLecture  on  Papacy,  Tremont  Temple,  Boston. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS,  25 

which  Mr.  Gladstone  defends,  by  saying,  "It  will  be  ob- 
served that  the  religion  of  the  Church  of  England  is  so  far 
from  exhibiting  that  unity  of  doctrine  which  Mr.  Gladstone 
represents  as  her  distinguishing  glory,  that  it  is  in  fact,  a 
bundle  of  religious  systems  without  number."  It  comprises 
the  religious  system  of  Bishop  Tomline,  and  the  religious 
system  of  John  Newton,  and  all  the  religious  systems  which 
lie  between  them.  It  comprises  the  religious  system  of  Mr. 
Newman,  and  the  religious  system  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Dublin,  and  all  the  religious  systems  which  lie  between 
them.  "  All  these  different  opinions '  are  held,  avowed, 
preached,  printed,  within  the  pale  of  the  church." 

But  what  becomes  of  all  Mr.  Gladstone's  exhortations  to 
unity  ?  Is  it  not  a  mere  mockery  to  attach  so  much  import- 
ance to  unity  in  form  and  name,  when  there  is  so  little  sub- 
stance ? — to  endure  with  patience  the  spectacle  of  a  hun- 
dred sects  battling  within  one  church? 

Mr.  Gladstone  seems  to  imagine  that  most  Protestants 
think  it  possible  for  the  same  doctrine  to  be  at  once  true 
and  false ;  or  they  think  it  immaterial  whether,  on  a  given 
religious  question,  a  man  comes  to  a  true  or  false  conclu- 
sian.  She  admits  to  her  highest  offices  men  who  contra- 
dict each  other  on  the  most  vital  questions  of  Christianity. 
They  profess  to  hold  the  real  presence,  transubstantiation, 
sacramental  confession,  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  purgatory, 
the  invocation  of  Mary  and  of  the  saints,  and  nearly  all  the 
other  doctrines  that  are  contained  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
creed.  Others  reject  all  these  doctrines  as  damnable  super- 
stition. Now,  by  what  effort  of  the  mind  can  these  two 
parties  be  said  to  be  one  ?  On  what  principle  can  it  be 
said  that  she  has  that  unity  which  is  essential  to  truth? 
What  idea  of  falsehood  can  we  have  if  we  hold  the  Church 
of  England  is  the  one  true  church  of  Christ?  "  * 

*  "Is  One  Religion  as  Good  as  Another?"  by  Rev.  John  Mac- 
Laughlin,  pages  135,  139,  140. 


26  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

The  Catholic  church  "subsists  in  all  ages,  teaches  all 
nations,  and  maintains  all  truth."  .  .  .  "She  comes 
down  by  a  perpetual  succession  from  the  Apostles  of  Christ 
and  has  her  DOCTRINE,  her  orders,  and  her  mission  FROM 
THEM." 

"  Can  she  err  in  matters  of  faith  ?  Ans. — No,  she  cannot 
err  in  matters  of  faith. 

"  Why  so  ?  Because  Christ  has  promised  that  the  gates  of 
hell  shall  not  prevail  against  his  church ;  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  shall  teach  her  all  truths  and  He  himself  will  abide 
with  her  forever. 

"  How  shall  we  know  the  things  which  we  are  to  be- 
lieve? Ans. — From  the  Catholic  church  of  God,  which 
He  has  established  by  innumerable  miracles,  and  illus- 
trated by  the  lives  and  deaths  of  innumerable  saints."* 

Ah,  how,  indeed  shall  we  know  the  things  which  we  are 
to  believe?  Not,  to  rational  minds  by  the  "  infallible  word 
of  God,"  as  defined  by  the  Pope.  Neither  does  the  testi- 
mony of  Catholics  to  "innumerable  miracles,"  nor  the  fact 
that  good  men  and  women  have  been  found  within  her  pale, 
"estab  ish  "  us  upon  an  immovable  foundation,  nor  guar- 
antee safety  in  the  acceptation  of  her  decretals. 

Thus  with  neither  Catholic  or  Protestant  church  is  the  test 
of  certainty  found.  Has  Immanuel  Swedenborg  dispelled  the 
cloud  that  covers  the  great  mystery,  or  has  he  added  to  its 
density?  On  the  contrary,  does  not  the  abstruseness  of  his 
most  voluminous  creed  rather  add  to  than  diminish  the 
uncertainty  concerning  religious  questions,  and  place  him 
among  the  rank  of  nobles  and  learned  men  who  by  their 
"  wisdom  knew  not  God."  And  when  we  turn  to  the  ques- 
tion of  his  seership,  still  though  astonished,  we  are  not  en- 
lightened ;  a  sign,  but  not  certainty,  marks  these  revelations. 
And  if  his  spiritual  agency  or  guide  informed  him  correctly  of 

*  Apostles  Creed,  and  Catechism. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  27 

the  great  fire  in  Stockholm,  it  certainly  is  no  more  wonderful 
than  the  fulfilled  predictions  of  other  religionists  with  whom 
he  is  at  an  entire  disagreement  in  regard  to  other  and  more 
important  matters,  and  the  statements  concerning  his  inter- 
views with  dead  Greek  philosophers,  and  revelations  con- 
cerning the  heavenly  world  or  worlds,  are  so  ambiguous  and 
and  filled  with  prolixity,  as  to  rob  them  even  of  the  claim 
of  profundity,  and  rather  suggest  a  species  of  hypnotism 
whose  revelations  cannot  be  made  subject  to  any  rational 
test  as  to  their  truth  or  falsity. 

The  "Shakers,"  with  "  Mother "  Ann  Lee  as  their  high 
priestess  and  head,  claimed  power  to  "  heal  the  sick," 
"cast  out  devils,"  and  even  raise  the  dead.  Mother 
Lee  communicated  with  the  dead,  and,  like  Swedenborg,  had 
correspondence  with  angels,  but  they  were  Shaker  angels, 
as  Swedenborgian  angels,  and  with  differences  as  strongly 
marked  in  Bible  interpretations,  and  to  practical  minds  the 
stream  never  rose  much  higher  than  the  fountain  of  an  inspi- 
ration whose  waters  were  so  sadly  corrupted  with  precon- 
ceived absurdities  and  traditional  belief  as  to  make  it  entirely 
vulnerable  in  its  claims  to  perfect  authorship. 

Though  attended  by  physical  and  metaphysical  pheno- 
mena, the  same  uncertainty  marks  the  revelations  of  modern 
spiritualism,  and  it  is  as  easy  to  prove  that  there  are  lying 
spirits,  as  that  there  are  spirits  at  all.  No  intelligence  existing, 
or  at  least  communicating  higher  than  the  "progressive"  stage 
that  mortals  once  inhabiting  this  earth  have  already  attained 
to  in  spirit  life  and  world ;  and  the  rapidity  also  with  which 
all  men,  whether  Christian,  infidel  or  Pagan,  are  converted 
to  the  peculiar  tenets  of  spiritualism  as  soon  as  they  pass 
from  earth  life,  gives  it — with  the  other  revelations  already 
noticed — a  strong  smack  and  flavor  of  the  earth,  which  the 
wonders  of  slate  writing,  or  cabinet  manifestations  even,  can- 
not disabuse  our  minds  of  the  possibility  or  even  probability 


28  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

of  the  conscious  or  unconscious  employment  of  metaphysical 
or  occult  hypnotism  upon  the  mind  or  body  of  the 
"  medium."  The  "conditi  jns,"  also,  upon  which  knowledge 
is  said  to  be  furnished  to  the  truth  seeker  often  lacks  the  savor 
of  practical  morality  to  inspire  unlimited  confidence  in  the 
authorship  of  the  revelation  —  communications  too  often 
conforming  themselves  to  the  opinions  as  well  as  passions  of 
the  individuals. 

Persons  accustomed  to  high  moral  altitudes,  and  having 
strict  notions  in  regard  to  sexual  purity,  for  instance,  however, 
are  not  liable  to  be  shocked  by  a  revelation  which  is  certain 
to  be  followed  by  rejection.  But  it  would  be  contrary  to  the 
logic  of  facts  to  say  that  the  revelation  has  not  in  the  past 
conformed  to  a  suspicious  extent  with  the  wants,  desires, 
preconceived  opinion  and  moral  status  of  the  investigator. 


CHAPTER  II. 

EVERY  nation  anciently,  when  it  began  to  speculate 
upon  geographical  matters,  and  to  form  surmises  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  earth,  regarded  the  world  as  a 
vast  plain,  the  centre  of  which  was  their  own  country.  Fancy 
filled  the  regions  beyond  with  mythical  beings  and  with 
Utopias.  The  Greeks  of  Homer's  time  knew  no  more  of 
the  world  than  the  shores  of  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor; 
but  they  filled  all  the  outlying  regions  with  hydras  and  gor- 
gons,  with  happy  isles  beyond  the  western  seas  with  a  race 
of  supremely  wise,  happy  and  long-lived  mortals,  with  isles 
of  sirens,  with  fields  elysian,  and  the  abode  of  gods.  Encir- 
cling the  world's  plain  flowed  the  ocean  from  which  the 
sun  rose,  and  into  which  it  set. 

Still,  all  unconscious  and  unknown  to  us  are  we  the  sub- 
jects of  fond  desire  and  fancy  concerning 

"A  country  where  our  fair  hope  abides," 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  29 

which  the  light  of  the  coming  day  may  relegate  with  the 
Greek  tradition  to  the  history  room,  where  exploded  myth 
and  fabled  fancy  entertains  at  once  and  mocks  the  hope  to 
guess  the  heavens,  or  penetrate  their  secret.  And  the 
"  Heavenly  Jerusalem,"  the  golden  street,  the  harp  and  the 
crown,  may  fade  away  from  our  hope  as  Christian  mythology, 
at  least,  as  yet,  has  there  been  no  revelation  to  the  world 
that  the  report  of  this  vision,  said  to  have  been  given  upon 
that  island  in  the  Mediterranean  sea  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago,  is  authentic.  No  one  who  has  possessed  a  harp,  or  wore 
a  crown,  or  whose  feet  have  pressed  the  street  of  the  Golden 
City,  ever  returned  to  certify  that  it  is  so.  Christians  do 
not  claim  it,  but,  on  the  contrary,  deny  any  revelation  but 
the  old  letter  since  that  time ;  and  those  who  do  claim  to 
have  come  back,  not  only  deny  having  seen  it,  but  the  prob- 
ability of  its  existence. 

"  Far  out  of  sight  while  yet  the  flesh  enfolds  us, 
Lies  the  fair  country  where  our  heart  abides; 
And  of  its  bliss  is  naught  more  wondrous  told  us, 
Than  these  few  words,  '  I  shall  be  satisfied.'  " 

Yes,  we  may  be,  but  we  cannot  tell.  It  is  good  poetry, 
but  it  is  hypothetical  poetry,  and  expresses  less  of  rational  or 
even  scriptural  idea,  as  will  be  hereafter  seen,  than  of  hyper- 
bole, and  the  world  is  already  learning  to  say,  with  Mr. 
Ingersoll,  "  Let  us  be  honest  with  ourselves.  In  the  pres- 
ence of  countless  mysteries,  standing  beneath  the  boundless 
heaven  sown  thick  with  constellations,  knowing  that  each 
grain  of  sand,  each  leaf,  each  blade  of  grass,  ask  of  every 
mind  the  answerless  question,  knowing  that  the  simplest 
thing  defies  solution,  feeling  that  we  deal  with  the  super- 
ficial and  the  relative,  and  that  we  are  forever  eluded  by  the 
real,  the  absolute,  let  us  admit  the  limitations  of  our  minds 
and  let  us  have  the  candor  to  say,  'we  do  not  know.'  "* 

*December  Number,  North  American  Review,  1889. 


30  SPIRITUAL  GIF:  s  A:::) 

And  yet,  if  true,  is  this  a  comforting  word?  Has  the 
life  we  know  enough  in  it  to  satisfy  ?  We  think  not.  Pro- 
fessor Clifford,  the  most  able  and  scholarly  atheist  of  the 
century  in  his  lecture  upon,  "  Influence  upon  Morality  of  a 
Decline  in  Religious  Belief,"  says,  "It  cannot  be  doubted 
that  theistic  belief  is  a  comfort  and  a  solace  to  those  who 
hold  it,  and  that  the  loss  of  it  is  a  very  painful  loss. 
It  cannot  be  doubted,  at  least,  by  many  of  us  in  this  gen- 
eration who  either  profess  it  now  or  received  it  in  our  child- 
hood and  have  parted  from  it  since  with  such  searching 
trouble  as  only  cradle  faiths  can  cause.  We  have  seen  the 
spring  sun  shine  out  of  an  empty  heaven  to  light  up  a  soul- 
less earth ;  we  have  felt  with  utter  loneliness  that  the  Great 
Companion  is  dead.  Our  children,  it  may  be  hoped,  will 
know  that  sorrow  only  by  the  reflex  light  of  wondering  com- 
passion." 

If  the  children  of  these  great  infidels  and  atheists  of 
modern  times  ever  are  made  to  look  back  in  "  the  reflex 
light  of  wondering  compassion  "  upon  the  darkness  that  now 
spreads  itself  like  a  pall  upon  the  intellectual  mind  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  it  will  be  because1  they  either  have  been 
enabled  to  extract  more  from  creeds  and  dogmas  than  their 
fathers,  or  else  shall  there  be  a  new  light  and  a  way  pointed 
out  to  them  in  which,  walking,  they  find  out  more  than  has 
or  does  the  popular  religious  world  furnish  them  with  to-day. 

"  Canst  thou  by  searching,  find  out  God  ? "  In  answer 
to  this  question,  it  is  not  hard  to*  say  that  upon  the  premise 
that  there  is  a  God — and  no  one  claims  to  know  that  there 
is  not — that  to  travel  toward  Him  in  a  straight  line  and  long 
enough,  would  ensure  us  of  His  presence  and  of  His  exist- 
ence— yes.  But  the  natural  mind  would  say,  "the  chasm  is 
limitless  to  the  finite  mind."  So  are  the  terms  infinity  or 
eternity,  but  we  cannot  deny  their  probability  of  existence. 
But  is  or  has  there  been  a  revelation  from  Him  who  is  sup- 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  31 

posed  to  be  the  author  of  our  existence  that  can  be  tested 
satisfactorily  ?  Is  there  an  infallible  rule  and  /aw,  given  from 
a  perfect  and  infallible  source,  by  which  man  may  know  that 
he  is  at  least  in  the  way  that  will  not  lead  to  disappoint- 
ment? And  we  answer,  yes.  What  and  where,  then,  is 
the  way  ?  and  we  answer,  IT  is  THE  WAY  OF  LIGHT. 

"  This  then  is  the  message  which  we  have  heard  of  him, 
and  declare  unto  you,  that  God  is  light,  and  in  him  is  no 
darkness  at  all. 

"  If  we  say  that  we  have  fellowship  with  him,  and  walk  in 
darkness,  we  lie,  and  do  not  the  truth."  (I  JOHN,  i :  5,  6.) 

If  this  is  true,  what  becomes  of  the  rhymed  and  blinded 
faith  of  that  victim  to  the  changing  faiths  of  centuries.  The 
beautiful  Quaker  poet  thus  expressed  : 

"  I  falter,  where  I  firmly  trod, 

And  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  fall 
Upon  the  world's  great  altar  stair 
That  slopes  THROUGH  DARKNESS  up  to  God." 

Is  the  way  to  God  the  way  of  darkness  ?  If  the  way  we 
have  largely  trod  for  centuries  is  the  way  to  God,  we  are 
obliged  to  say,  yes.  If  John,  the  servant  of  Jesus  Christ, 
told  the  truth,  and  the  truth  has  not  changed,  we  must  say, 
no ;  for  "  God  is  Light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all." 

"  But  if  we  walk  in  the  light,  as  he  is  in  the  light,  we 
have  fellowship  one  with  another. 

1 '  That  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  declare  we  unto 
you,  that  ye  also  may  have  fellowship  with  us  :  and  truly 
our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father,  and  with  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ."  (I  JOHN  i,  7  :  3.) 

What  fellowship  hath  modern  theologians  or  the  world 
with  the  Christ  of  New  Testament  times,  or  what  harmony 
or  agreement  with  his  words  ? 

"  Then  said  Jesus  to  those  Jews  which  believed  on  him, 
If  ye  continue  in  my  word,  then  are  ye  my  disciples  indeed ; 


32  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"And  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make 
you  free. 

"  They  answered  him,  We  be  Abraham's  seed,  and  were 
never  in  bondage  to  any  man  :  how  sayest  thou,  Ye  shall 
be  made  free  ? 

"Jesus  answered  them,  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
Whosoever  committeth  sin  is  the  servant  of  sin."  (JOHN, 
viii,  31-34.) 

What  is  sin  ?  It  is  a  transgression  of  law.  What  law 
has  the  world  transgressed  ?  "  The  earth  is  denied  under 
the  inhabitants  thereof;  because  they  have  transgressed  the 
laws,  changed  the  ordinance,  broken  the  everlasting  cove- 
nant. Therefore  hath  a  curse  devoured  the  earth,  and  they 
that  dwell  therein  are  desolate ;  therefore  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth  are  burned  and  but  few  men  left."  (!SA.  xxiv,  5  :  6.) 

"  This  second  epistle,  beloved,  I  now  write  unto  you  ;  in 
both  which  I  stir  up  your  pure  minds  by  way  of  remem- 
brance : 

"  That  ye  may  be  mindful  of  the  words  which  were 
spoken  before  by  the  holy  prophets,  and  of  the  command- 
ment of  us  the  apostles  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour : 

"  Knowing  this  first,  that  there  shall  come  in  the  last 
days  scoffers,  walking  after  their  own  lusts, 

"And  saying,  Where  is  the  promise  of  His  coming?  for 
since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things  continue  as  they  were 
from  the  beginning  of  the  creation. 

"  For  this  they  willingly  are  ignorant  of,  that  by  the 
word  of  God  the  heavens  were  of  old,  and  the  earth  stand- 
ing out  of  the  water  and  in  the  water : 

"  Whereby  the  world  that  then  was,  being  overflowed 
with  water,  perished  : 

"  But  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  which  are  now,  by  the 
same  word  are  kept  in  store,  reserved  unto  fire  against  the 
day  of  judgment  and  perdition  of  ungodly  men. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  33 

"  But,  beloved,  be  not  ignorant  of  this  one  thing,  that 
one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a 
thousand  years  as  one  day. 

"  The  Lord  is  not  slack  concerning  his  promise,  as  some 
men  count  slackness ;  but  is  longsuffering  to  us-ward,  not 
willing  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to 
repentance. 

"  But  the  day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the 
night;  in  the  which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a 
great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt*  with  fervent  heat, 
the  earth  also  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be 
burned  up. 

"  Seeing  then  that  all  these  things  shall  be  dissolved, 
what  manner  of  persons  ought  ye  to  be  in  all  holy  conver- 
sation and  godliness. 

"  Looking  for  and  hasting  unto  the  coming  of  the  day 
of  God,  wherein  the  heavens  being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved, 
and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat  ? 

"  Nevertheless  we,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteous- 
ness." (II  PETER  iii,  i  to  13.) 

"And  to  you  who  are  troubled  rest  with  us,  when  the 
Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  with  his  mighty 
angels, 

"  In  flaming  fire  take  vengeance  on  them  that  know  not 
God,  and  that  obey  not  the  gospel  of  our  Lortf  Jesus 
Christ: 

"Who  shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  destruction 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  his  power ; 

"  When  he  shall  come  to  be  glorified  in  his  saints, 
and  to  be  admired  in  all  them  that  believe  (because  our 
testimony  among  you  was  believed)  in  that  day."  (II  THESS. 
i,  7  to  io.)  ^^ 

*  "  Be  filled  "  with  fervent  heat,  etc. 


34  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

What  shall  we  believe?  "in  that  day,"  or,  in  the  language 
of  the  Catholic  creed,  "How  shall  we  know  the  things 
which  we  are  to  believe?" 

"  Then  said  Jesus  to  those  Jews  which  believed  on  him, 
If  ye  continue  in  my  word,  then  are  ye  my  disciples  indeed ; 

•'  And  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make 
you  free.  QOHN  viii,  31  :  32.) 

The  Catholic  church  having  failed  to  continue  in  his 
word,  and  Protestants  as  well,  belief  and  tradition  having 
taken  the  place  of  KNOWLEDGE  in  spiritual  matters,  the  neces- 
sity for  the  restoration  of  that  law  and  doctrine,  anciently 
promulgated,  has  become  an  actual  fact  before  this  infidel 
world  can  be  justified  in  the  rejection  of  the  idea  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  the  chosen  and  true  representative  of 
God. 

"  Now  about  the  midst  of  the  feast  Jesus  went  up  into 
the  temple  and  taught. 

"And  the  Jews  marveled,  saying,  How  knoweth  this 
man  letters,  having  never  learned  ? 

"  Jesus  answered  them,  and  said,  My  doctrine  is  not 
mine,  but  his  that  sent  me. 

"  If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doc- 
trine, whether  it  be  of  God,  or  whether  I  speak  of  myself. 
(JOHN  vii,  14-17-) 

Will  some  theologian  arise  and  tell  us  what  particular  doc- 
trine which  by  "  doing  "  according  to  their  prescribed  forms 
of  faith  a  knowledge  concerning  which,  and  of  the  true 
character  of  Jesus,  "The  Son  of  the  Carpenter,"  will  be 
furnished?" 

On  the  contrary,  is  it  not  true  that  doctrinal  belief  has 
become  decidedly  unpopular  in  the  churches  of  to-day,  and 
if  so,  why,  if  not,  because  of  the  fact,  that,  as  in  Jesus' 
day,  they  have  been  so  long  teaching  for  commandments  of 
G6d  the  doctrines  of  men,  that,  seeing  the  confusion  wrought 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  35 

by  man-made  doctrines,  they  have  concluded  to  abandon 
all  doctrine  ?  And  yet  the  beloved  disciple  says  : 

"And  this  is  love,  that  we  walk  after  His  command- 
ments. This  is  the  commandment,  That,  as  ye  have  heard 
from  the  beginning,  ye  should  walk  in  it. 

"  For  many  deceivers  are  entered  into  the  world,  who 
confess  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh.  This  is  a 
deceiver  and  an  antichrist. 

"  Look  to  yourselves,  that  we  lose  not  those  things 
which  we  have  wrought,  but  that  we  receive  a  full  reward. 

"  Whosoever  transgresseth,  and  abideth  not  in  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ,  hath  not  God.  He  that  abideth  in  the 
doctrine  of  Christ,  he  hath  both  the  Father  and  the  Son. 

"  If  there  come  any  unto  you,  and  bring  not  this  doc- 
trine, receive  him  not  into  your  house,  neither  bid  him 
God  speed : 

"  For  he  that  biddeth  him  God  speed  is  partaker  of  his 
evil  deeds.  (II  JOHN  ii,  6-u.) 

Worldly  wisdom  and  erudition  may  supplement,  but  can 
never  be  safely  made  to  take  the  place  of  obedience  to  the 
formulas  prescribed  by  the  Saviour  of  mankind  by  which  a 
knowledge  of  his  true  character,  and  of  his  doctrine  may 
be  had. 

"  For  after  that  in  the  wisdom  of  God  the  world  by 
wisdom  knew  not  God,  it  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of 
preaching  to  save  them  that  believe. 

"  For  the  Jews  require  a  sign,  and  the  Greeks  seek  after 
wisdom  : 

"But  we  preach  Christ  crucified,  unto  the  Jews  a 
stumblingblock,  and  unto  the  Greeks  foolishness ; 

"  But  unto  them  which  are  called,  both  Jews  and 
Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of  God. 

"  Because  the  foolishness  of  God  is  wiser  than  men ; 
and  the  weakness  of  God  is  stronger  than  men. 


36  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  For  ye  see  your  calling,  brethren,  how  that  not  many 
wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble, 
are  called : 

•'  But  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world 
to  confound  the  wise ;  and  God  hath  chosen  the  weak 
things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  things  which  are  mighty ; 

"  And  base  things  of  the  world,  and  things  which  are 
despised,  hath  God  chosen,  yea,  and  things  which  are  not, 
to.  bring  to  nought  things  that  are  :• 

"  That  no  flesh  should  glory  in  his  presence."  (I  COR. 
i,  21  :  29. 

And  Paul,  knowing  the  absolute  necessity  of  continuing 
in  the  word  which  the  Master  had  commanded,  urges  Tim- 
othy thus : 

I  charge  thee  therefore  before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  his  appear- 
ing and  his  kingdom ; 

'•  Preach  the  word ;  be  instant  in  season,  out  of  season  ; 
reprove,  rebuke,  exhort  with  all  longsuffering  and  doctrine. 

"  For  the  time  will  come  when  they  will  not  endure 
sound  doctrine ;  but  after  their  own  lusts  shall  they  heap  to 
themselves  teachers,  having  itching  ears ; 

"  And  they  shall  turn  away  their  ears  from  the  truth,  and 
shall  be  turned  unto  fables.  (II  TIM.  iv,  2-4.) 

What  is  truth?  What  is  sound  doctrine?  Thy  word, 
said  Jesus,  is  truth.  Is  it  true  that  in  these  modern  times 
men's  ears  are  turned  away  from  the  word  of  God,  and  are 
being  entertained  by  the  wisdom  of  this  world.  Is  it  not 
true  that  Christian  and  heathen  mythological  "fable," 
(stories,  see  Smith's  Bible  Dictionary,)  embellished  with 
erudition,  oratory,  and  stage  effect,  in  elocution  and  rhetoric, 
are  the  means  employed  to  fill  the  modern  pew  and  replen- 
ish the  coffers  of  the  church  ? 

What  is  sound  doctrine  ?     It   must   be   the   doctrine  of 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  37 

Christ,  "  My  Doctrine,"  transgressing  which,  and  not  abiding 
in,  we  are  informed,  we  have  not  God ;  "  but  he  that  abideth 
in  the  doctrine  of  Christ  hath  both  the  Father  and  the  Son." 
We  may  be  religious,  but  we  may  be  seriously,  and  so  far  as 
knowledge  goes,  fatally  wrong,  by  being  misled  in  these  most 
important  matters. 

"  Take  heed  unto  thyself,  and  unto  the  doctrine ;  con- 
tinue in  them  :  for  in  doing  this  thou  shalt  both  save  thy- 
self, and  them  that  hear  thee.  (i  Tim.  4  :  16.) 

Seeing  then  the  importance  and  stress  laid  upon  these 
.matters  in  the  early  church,  let  us  proceed  to  seek  for  a 
clear  definition  of  these  doctrines,  or  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 

"  Therefore  leaving  the  principles  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ,  let  us  go  on  unto  perfection ;  not  laying  again  the 
foundation  of  repentance  from  dead  works,  and  of  faith 
toward  God, 

"Of  the  doctrine  of  baptisms,  and  of  laying  on  of 
hands,  and  of  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  of  eternal  judg- 
ment. 

"  And  this  will  we  do,  if  God  permit. 

"For  it  is  impossible  for  those  who  were  once  enlight- 
ened, and  have  tasted  of  the  heavenly  gift,  and  were  made 
partakers  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 

"  And  have  tasted  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the  pow- 
ers of  the  world  to  come, 

"If  they  shall  fall  away,  to  renew  them  again  unto 
repentance ;  seeing  they  crucify  to  themselves  the  Son  of 
God  afresh,  and  put  him  to  an  open  shame.  (HEB.  vi, 
1:6.) 

Another  translation  says,  "  Not  leaving  the  principles  of 
the  doctrine  of  Christ,"  etc.,  but  the  common  version  will 
answer  our  purpose ;  for  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  we 
are  to  leave  them,  in  the  sense  of  a  total  abandonment,  as 
for  instance  :  though  the  child  may  enter  the  way  of  com- 


38  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

mon  learning  by  means  of  the  alphabet,  yet  can  the  use  of 
the  alphabet  never  be  abandoned — no  matter  to  what 
heights  he  may  obtain.  The  use  of  the  musical  notes  that 
form  the  common  scale  will  and  must  always  be  in  use  in 
that  system.  No  more  can  we  either  start  right  and  con- 
tinue safely  so  by  abandoning  the  principles  of  the  doctrine 
of  Christ.  For,  it  is  impossible  for  those  who  were  once 
enlightened — by  obedience  to  these  doctrines — and  have 
tasted  of  the  heavenly  gift — spiritual  gifts — and  were  made 
partakers  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  have  tasted  of  the  good 
word  of  God  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  "  to 
renew  them  again  unto  repentance " — concerning  these 
things. 

"  For  sin  shall  not  have  dominion  over  you  :  for  ye  are 
not  under  the  law,  but  under  grace. 

"What  then?  shall  we  sin,  because  we  are  not  under 
the  law,  but  under  grace  ?  God  forbid. 

"  Know  ye  not,  that  to  whom  ye  yield  yourselves  ser- 
vants to  obey,  his  servants  ye  are  to  whom  ye  obey; 
whether  of  sin  unto  death  or  of  obedience  unto  righteous- 
ness? 

"  But  God  be  thanked,  that  though  ye  were  the  ser- 
vants of  sin,  ye  have  obeyed  from  the  heart  that  form  of 
doctrine  which  was  delivered  you. 

"Being  then  made  free  from  sin,  ye  became  the  ser- 
vants of  righteousness. 

"  But  now  being  made  free  from  sin,  and  become  ser- 
vants to  God,  ye  have  your  fruit  unto  holiness,  and  the  end 
everlasting  life. 

"  For  the  wages  of  sin  is  death ;  but  the  gift  of  God  is 
eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  (Ron.  vi, 
14:  23.) 

What  form  of  doctrine  ?  Mr.  Wesley  said  that  "  we  are 
but  a  band  of  brethren  having  a  form  of  godliness,  and 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  39 

seeking  the  power."  Have  his  professed  followers  found, 
and  do  they  now  possess  it, -or  have  they  with  the  rest  of 
the  daughters  of  "rrfystery,"  "Babylon,"  turned  away  their 
ears  from  the  truth  and  from  submission  to  "  that  form  of 
doctrine"  by  which  the  Hebrew  saints  were  enlightened  and 
enabled  to  be  partakers  of  the  heavenly  gifts  promised  in 
all  ages  to  the  believer  in  Christ's  work  ? 


CHAPTER  III. 

F   THE  doctrine,  then,  first  a  theoretical  basis    and 
exposition  briefly  will  be  in  order  : 

i  st.  According  to  Paul,  repentance  from  dead 
works,  the  result  of  faith  in  the  doctrines  and  precepts  of 
men,  was  necessary,  and  in  order  to  do  this,  the  unprofi- 
tableness of  man-made  *'  forms  "  of  worship,  for  which  there 
is  no  authority  from  Christ  or  no  evidence  of  profit  to 
men,  needs  to  be  shown,  though  we  may  be  deemed 
uncharitable  in  so  doing,  and  of  supplanting  this  faith  in 
human  dogmas  or  of  "  revelations  "  from  any  source  not  in 
harmony  with  this  law  of  his  own  establishment  with  a 
"faith  toward  God." 

"Or  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  BAPTISMS." 

Baptism  here  is  spoken  of  as  plural,  though  referred  to  by 
Paul  in  Eph.  iv,  5,  as  one,  which  in  reality  is  one  as  having 
one  authorship,  but  two  in  the  sense  that,  though  John's 
baptism  was  an  authorized  and  heavenly  baptism,  neither 
he  or  any  other  man  on  earth  could  do  more  than  to 
baptize  with  water  unto  repentance,  or  "  for  the  remission 
of  sins,1'  (See  Peter  on  day  of  »Pentecost)  ;  and  if  skep- 
ticism concerning  the  efficacy  of  the  use  of  water  in  any  form 
of  religious  worship  has  been  engendered,as  it  evidently  has, 


4o  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

and  is  being,  in,  as  well  as  out  of  churches,  it  is  not  because 
that  John's  baptism  has  ceased  to  be  a  heavenly  baptism,  or 
that  the  command  to,  "Go  teach  all  nations,baptizing  them," 
etc.,  is  not  binding  to  day  upon  the  true  ambassador  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  of  old,  but  because  "faith  cometh  by  hearing 
and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God"  in  contradistinction  to 
the  word  of  man.  But,  "  How  shall  they  hear  without  a 
preacher?  and  how  shall  they  preach  except  they  be  sent?" 

"  Faith,  gospel  faith,  is  an  assurance  of  things  hoped  for 
and  an  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  The  evidence  having 
been  lacking  in  regard  to  the  reasonableness  or  justice  of 
human  creeds,  faith  in  them  could  not  be  and  is  not  j  ustified, 
"  but  justification  through  faith  is  a  very  wholesome  doc- 
trine and  full  of  comfort,"  even  to  the  intelligent  mind  if  it 
be  faith  in  the  truth.  "  Therefore,  being  justified  by  faith 
we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ" 
and  not  through  the  doctrines  of  men.  On  the  contrary, 
Mr.  Ingersoll  says,  and  says  truly,  "  their  doctrines  have 
filled  the  world  with  woe."  Instead  of  peace,  discord,  divi- 
sion and  doubt,  and  to  believe  which,  no  man  is  justified  of 
God  in  doing,  and  if  no  sign  of  profit  or  fruitfulness  appears 
in  vindication  of  the  practice  of  baptism  in  any  form  to 
ra'tional  minds,  the  consistent  answer  must  be  that  dis- 
obedience and  apostacy  from  Christ's  law  having  become 
an  established  fact  in  history,  it  logically  follows  that  Christ 
is  no  longer  bound  to  respect  his  part  of  the  contract  which 
he  made  with  men  1800  years  ago,  when  he  said,  "  If  any 
man  will  do  (not  simply  believe),  he  shall  know  of  the  doc- 
trine." And,  we  ask  again,  Do  what?  Why,  "All things 
whatsoever  I  command  you,"  for  : 

"  If  you  love  me,  keep  my  commandments. 

"And  I  will  pray  the*  Father,  and  he  shall  give  you 
another  comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you  forever ; 

"Even   the.    Spirit   of    truth;  whom  the  world   cannot 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  41 

receive,  because  it  seeth  him  not,  neither  knoweth  him : 
but  ye  know  him ;  for  he  dwelleth  with  you,  and  shall  be 
in  you.  (JOHN  xiv,  15  :  17.) 

And  "  the  spirit  of  truth  "  having  departed  with  its  gifts, 
the  world  has  been  the  blind  followers  of  blind  leaders. 
But  we  ask,  should  not  Jesus  Christ  recognize  some  form  of 
baptism  if  it  be  the  correct  one?  And  we  answer,  that  dis- 
connected from  the  other,  or  "  all "  of  the  commandments 
or  doctrine  which  he  enjoined,  No  !  for  James,  speaking 
even  of  the  law  of  Moses,  which  was  but  a  shadow  of  the 
perfect  law  of  liberty,  says  : 

"  For  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet 
offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all. 

"  For  he  that  said,  Do  not  commit  adultery,  said  also, 
Do  not  kill.  Now  if  thou  commit  no  adultery,  yet  if  thou 
kill,  thou  art  become  a  transgressor  of  the  law. 

"  So  speak  ye,  and  so  do,  as  they  that  shall  be  judged 
by  the  law  of  liberty.  (JAS.  ii.  10,  n,  12.) 

And  if  we  are  no  longer  under  that  law,  but  under  grace , 
it  is  not  grace  that  permits  a  man  to  be  utterly  lawless  in 
religious  matters,  but  on  the  contrary,  Paul  says  in  Heb- 
rews viii,  28,  29  : 

"  He  that  despised  Moses'  law  died  without  mercy 
under  two  or  three  witnesses  : 

"Of  how  much  sorer  punishment,  suppose  ye,  shall  he 
be  thought  worthy,  who  hath  trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of 
God,  and  hath  counted  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  where- 
with he  was  sanctified,  an  unholy  thing,  and  hath  done  des- 
pite unto  the  Spirit  of  grace  ?  " 

And  if  we  have  broken  this  everlasting  covenant,  as- 
Isaiah  predicted  (24th  Chap.),  is  God  bound  to  keep  his 
part  of  the  covenant  ? 

"AND  OF  LAYING  ON  OF  HANDS." 

"Why,  we  lay  on  hands,"  says  the  Catholic  or  Episcopa- 


42  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

lian.  Yes,  but  why  are  you  in  the  same  dilemma  as  others? 
and  we  can  only  answer  for  you  that  it  is  not  because 
Jesus  Christ  is  not  "the  same,  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
ever," but  because  Paul  told  the  truth  when  he  said  that 
"  no  man  taketh  this  honor  unto  himself,  but  he  that  is 
called  of  God  as  was  Aaron."  God  neither  has,  in  any 
past  age,  neither  will  He  in  this  age,  respect  the  authority 
or  ministration  of  men  who  send  themselves  or  are  "  called  " 
by  the  congregation,  with  the  sound  of  the  louder  metallic 
jingle.  And  if  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  upon  the  Samaritans 
whom  Philip  baptized,  through  the  laying  on  of  the  hands 
of  Peter  and  John,  it  was  because  he  had  authorized  them 
so  to  do.  Likewise,  if  the  twelve  Ephesians,  upon  whom 
Paul  laid  hands,  and  as  a  result  "  the  Holy  Ghost  came 
upon  them,  and  they  spake  with  tongues  and  prophesied," 
it  was  not  because  he  was  educated,  and  "called"  as 
modern  ministers  are,  but  because  that  he  told  the  truth 
when  he  said  to  the  Galatians,  i,  6  : 

"  I  marvel  that  ye  are  so  soon  removed  from  Him  that 
called  you  into  the  grace  of  Christ  unto  another  gospel : 

"  Which  is  not  another ;  but  there  be  some  that  trouble 
you,  and  would  pervert  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

"  But  though  we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  preach  any 
other  gospel  unto  you  than  that  which  we  have  preached 
unto  you,  let  him  be  accursed. 

"  As  we  said  before,  so  say  I  now  again,  If  any  man 
preach  any  other  gospel  unto  you  than  that  ye  have  received 
let  him  be  accursed. 

"  For  do  I  now  persuade  men,  or  God  ?  or  do  I  seek 
to  please  men  ?  for  if  I  yet  pleased  men,  I  should  not  be  the 
servant  of  Christ. 

"  But  I  certify  you,  brethren,  that  the  gospel  which  was 
preached  of  me  is  not  after  man. 

"  For  I  neither  received  it  of  man,  neither  was  I  taught 
it,  but  by  the  revelation  of  y^esus  Christ" 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  43 

"AND  OF  RESURRECTION  FROM  THE  DEAD." 

It  is  a  sound  and  true  doctrine,  and  shows  the  beautiful 
consistency,  harmony  and  provision  made  by  the  Creator, 
and  expressed  by  Paul  in  the  Ephesian  letter,  i  Chap.,  8. 

"Wherein  he  hath  abounded  toward  us  in  all  wisdom 
and  prudence ; 

"  Having  made  known  unto  us  the  mystery  of  his  will, 
according  to  his  good  pleasure  which  he  hath  purposed  in 
himself : 

"That  in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  of  times  he 
might  gather  together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  both  which 
are  in  heaven,  and  which  are  on  earth ;  even  in  him  : 

"  In  whom  also  we  have  obtained  an  inheritance,  being 
predestinated  according  to  the  purpose  of  him  who  worketh 
all  things  after  the  counsel  of  His  own  will.  " 

The  "wisdom  and  prudence  "  manifested  in  the  creed  of 
Calvin  and  others  is  not  the  wisdom  which  the  gospel  of 
"glad  tidings  to  all  the  people  "  will  reveal  when  preached 
by  those  sent.  If  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  is  not  true,  then  is  Christ  not  risen  and  our  preaching 
and  our  hope  is  in  vain,  and  the  Bible  is  anything  but  the 
true  word  of  God,  Job  was  mistaken,  David  in  error,  and 
Jesus  wrong  when  he  said  : 

"  All  that  the  Father  giveth  me  shall  come  to  me ;  and 
him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out. 

"  For  I  came  down  from  heaven,  not  to  do  my  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me. 

"  And  this  is  the  Father's  will  which  hath  sent  me,  that 
of  all  which  he  hath  given  me  I  should  lose  nothing,  but 
should  raise  it  up  again  at  the  last  day. 

"  And  this  is  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me,  that  every 
one  which  seeth  the  Son,  and  believeth  on  him,  may  have 
everlasting  life  :  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day." 
(JOHNvi.  37:  40.) 


44  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

Through  Jesus  Christ  nothing  to  man  can  or  will  be  lost ; 
human  sorrow,  trial,  disappointment,  death,  shall  only  serve 
to  make  eternal  life  more  glorious,  and  fit  us  to  finish  our 
incompleted  work  in  a  restored  and  perfect  body, 
upon  the  ground  of  its  incompleteness  and  partial  failure — 
failure  at  least  so  far  as  reaching  even  our  poor  ideals  upon 
this  earth  as  in  the  day  when  "  the  meek  shall  inherit "  it, 
and  "  shall  delight  themselves  in  the  abundance  of  peace." 
The  possibilities  of  this  perfect  combination  of  spirit  and 
matter  have  never  been  realized  upon  this  earth,  and  never 
can  unless  permitted  to  return.  For  though  we  may  be 
possessed  of  the  gifts  of  the  gospel  even,  yet  do  we  now 
prophesy  in  part  only,  and  know  in  part  only,  but  when  that 
which  is  perfect  is  come,  partial  and  incomplete  things  shall 
be  done  away,  and  though  "  for  the  perfection  of  saints  " 
are  the  gifts  of  God  instituted,  yet,  does  our  ignorance  and 
incompleteness  mock,  and  our  slowness  of  growth  ridicule 
the  idea  of  anything  like  an  attainment  unto  the  stature 
portrayed  in  Christ  with  the  time  and  opportunities  offered 
to  mortals  in  the  brief  span  that  lies  between  the  cradle  and 
the  tomb. 

"AND  OF  ETERNAL  JUDGMENT." 

Our  brief  survey  of  the  uncertainties  that  now  prevail  in 
regard  to  the  real  or  actual  estate  of  the  dead ;  of  the 
future,  of  rewards  and  punishments  for  the  human  family 
who  have  dwelt,  or  are  now  dwelling  upon  this  planet,  must 
suffice  to  convince  us  that  the  majority  of  mankind  at  least, 
are  in  the  dark,  and  the  best  that  all  the  various  priests  of 
every  altar  and  of  every  temple  can  -give  us,  is  an  opinion. 

Once  more  we  urge  the  neccessity  of  the  return  of  that 
ancient  law  and  order  and  following  as  a  neccessity — as 
does  the  day  the  night — the  return  of  the  ancient  promised 
comforter,  the  "spirit  of  truth,"  to  teach  us  concerning 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  45 

these  things  and  to  "  take  away  the  vail "  that  is  over  the 
minds  of  the  world  and  of  its  self-appointed  ministers,  in  the 
reading  of  the  scriptures,  in  regard  to  this  principle  of  the 
doctrines  of  Christ,  even  as  in  the  days  of  Paul. 

"  But  their  minds  were  blinded :  for  until  this  day 
remaineth  the  same  vail  untaken  away  in  the  reading  of  the  old 
testament ;  which  vail  is  done  away  in  Christ.  (2  COR,  iii :  14.) 

And  after  centuries  of  apostacy  from  primitive  Aethods,  is 
it  at  all  strange  that  the  vail  is  over  the  Gentile  nations  and 
clearly  manifested  in  the  contradictions  of  faith  expressed 
in  human  creed  in  their  reading  of  not  only  the  Old  but  the 
New  Testament?  No  revelation, no  ray  of  heavenly  lighter 
intelligence,  no  more  the  spirit  of  truth  to  guide  the  servant 
of  Christ,  but  left  to .  quarrel  over  a  doubtful  translation  of 
words  spoken  hundreds  or  thousands  of  years  ago  and  sub- 
ject to  the  manipulation  of  men  who  make  no  claim  of 
inspiration  or  heavenly  guidance,  but  by  their  wisdom  direct 
or  misdirect,  as  the  case  may  have  and  has  been.  Does  not 
God  know  whether  angels,  men  or  women,  little  children  or 
heathen  are  elected  before  they  were  born  or  created  to 
punishments  defined  by  Calvin  or  Edwards? 

Why  didn't  those  men- made  divines,  who  so  recently  were 
assembled  in  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  in  New  York 
city,  ask  God  to  help  them  revise  the  Westminister  Cate- 
chism? Can  he  do  it?  Will  he  do  it?  Ask  yourselves, 
ask  them.  Isn't  it  true  that  the  Pagan,  Robert  G.  Inger- 
soll,  is  doing  more  to  "  revise  "  the  catechism  than  their 
own  God  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  we  are  living  close  to  the 
day  of  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy  uttered  by  that  servant  of 
the  living  God,  Jeremiah,  who  spake  not  as  men  speak,  but 
as  Peter  tells  us.  (II  PET.  i :  21.) 

"  For  the  prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of 
man  :  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost." 


46  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

When  he  said,  QER.  xvi :  19,)  "Oh  Lord,  my  strength, 
and  my  fortress,  and  my  refuge  in  the  day  of  affliction,  the 
Gentiles  shall  come  unto  thee  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  and 
shall  say,  Surely  our  fathers  have  inherited  lies,  vanity  and 
things  wherein  there  is  no  profit. 

Shall  a  man  make  gods  unto  himself,  and  they  are  no 
gods?" 

Only  l&t  evening,  I  heard  an  ex-Catholic  priest,  Father 
Chiniquy  say  that  the  Romish  Church  was  an  idolatrous 
church ;  but  how  much  better  off  in  this  respect  is  he  as  a 
Protestant?  "Thou  shall  have  no  other  Gods  before  me," 
was  the  ancient  and  authoritative  voice  and  command. 
That  was  the  God  who  said  in  the  beginning,  "  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  ownjmage."  The  God  of  whom  Paul  tells  us, 
(HEB.  i :  3,)  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  brightness  of  his  glory 
and  the  express  image  of  his  person.  And  if  it  be  absurd 
for  a  Catholic  to  suppose  or  maintain  that  by  the  power  or 
prayer  of  the  priest  a  piece  of  bread  or  wafer  is  turned  into 
the  literal  presence,  soul,  body  and  divinity  of  God  and  of 
Jesus  Christ,  is  it  not  equally  absurd  and  "idolatrous"  for  a 
Protestant  priest  to  borrow  from  the  Romish  church  the 
God  that  Constantine  and  his  bishops  made,  and  set  up  the 
idolatrous  worship  of  a  "God  without  body,  parts  or  pas- 
sions," in  the  place  of  that  "God  with  whom  Moses  spake 
face  to  face  as  a  man  speaketh  with  a  friend  ?"  To  substitute 
a  God  that  can  neither  hear,  see,  nor  speak,  nor  has  not 
spoken  for  centuries;  "gods  that  are  no  gods;"  made  to 
be  mocked  and  jeered  at  by  the  victims  of  an  unauthorized 
priesthood,  and  an  unproved  and  unprovable  gospel. 

Spiritual  gifts  are  the  gifts  of  God  to  men.  "Now,  con- 
cerning spiritual  gifts,  brethren,  I  would  not  have  you 
ignorant.  Ye  know  that  ye  were  Gentiles,  carried  away 
unto  these  dumb  idols,  even  as  ye  were  led.  (I  Cor.  xii, 
1:2.) 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  47 

What  is  an  idol  ?  It  is  a  God  :  a  false  one.  What  is  a 
dumb  idol  ?  It  is  a  dumb  God.  What  is  a  dumb  God  ?  It 
is  a  God  who  either  cannot,  will  not,  or  does  not  speak. 
What  kind  of  a  God  do  Catholics,  Protestants  or  Pagans 
worship  to-day  ?  and  does  their  worship  consist  in  a  worship  "in 
spirit  and  in  truth,"  or  has  it  been  and  is  it  yet  largely  a  system 
of  "lies,  and  vanity,  and  things  wherein  there  is  no  profit?" 

"Ye  worship  ye  know  not  what?"  What  would  the 
Christ  say  were  he  placed  standing  amid  our  modern  Babel 
of  to-day  ?  Has  he  changed  since  he  left  us,  or  is  he  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever?  If  the  heavens  should 
part,  and  he  should  speak,  would  his  speech  be  conformed 
to  everybody's  "shibboleth?"  "If  Jesus  Christ  should 
come  to  this  earth  to-day,  would  he  attend  our  church  ?" 
was  the  text  and  theme  of  the  Rev.  David  Utter,  pastor  of 
the  First  Universalist  Church  of  Chicago,  in  a  sermon  not 
long  ago.  He  is  coming,  and  it  will  be  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  he  will  attend  his  own  church,  if  he  can  find  it 
upon  earth.  Can  he  do  it?  Can  you  do  it,  my  reader? 
With  the  New  Testament  in  your  hand,  can  you  find  it? 
Will  all  the  Catholic,  Protestant,  or  Pagan  churches  in  the 
world  to-day  put  together  fill  the  pattern  of  that  church 
which  he  organized  before  he  went  away,  and  denominated 
"my  church?"  Search  the  world  through  to-day,  and 
coming  back  disappointed,  let  me  take  you  to  the  professed 
standard  of  reference. 

"Paul,  called  to  be  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  through  the 
will  of  God,  and  Sosthenes  our  brother. 

"  Unto  the  church  of  God  which  is  at  Corinth,  to  them 
that  are  sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus,  called  to  be  saints,  with 
all  that  in  every  place  call  upon  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  both  their's  and  our's  : 

"  Grace  be  unto  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father, 
and  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


48  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  I  thank  my  God  always  on  your  behalf,  for  the  grace 
of  God  which  is  given  you  by  Jesus  Christ ; 

"  That  in  every  thing  ye  are  enriched  by  him,  in  all 
utterance,  and  in  all  knowledge  ; 

"  Even  as  the  testimony  of  Christ  was  confirmed  in  you  ; 

"  So  that  ye  come  behind  in  no  gift ;  waiting  for  the 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 

"Who  shall  also  confirm  you  unto  the  end,  that  ye  may 
be  blameless  in  the  day  of  our  Lord  Jesus/ Christ."  (I  COR. 
i,  i  to  8. 

"  Unto  the  church  of  God  which  is  at  Corinth."  No  doubt 
about  the  "  orthodoxy  "  of  this  church,  or  that  it  was  "  evan- 
gelical "  then,  and  as  no  new  revelation  has  been  had, 
according  to  modern  teaching,  the  last  testament  in  regard 
to  these  things  ought  to  be  in  force,  with  rational  minds. 
"  By  Jesus  Christ ;  that  in  every  thing  ye  are  enriched  by 
aim  in  all  utterance."  Written  sermons  may  have  been 
unknown.  "  And  in  all  knowledge,"  not  credulity  or  suppo- 
sition. "  So  that  the  testimony  of  Christ  was  confirmed  in 
you"  What  testimony  ?  Why  the  signs  that  were  to  follow. 
The  gift  of  that  spirit  that  was  to  guide  them  into  truth,  and 
not  error,  and  was  to  confirm  the  word  not  only  in  the 
day  of  the  apostles,  but  "  unto  the  end." 

"  Now  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ."  (Chap,  xii,  27.)  We 
have  found  then,  not  only  the  church  of  God  but  the  "  body  " 
or  church  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"  Now  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and  members  in  par- 
ticular. 

"  And  God  hath  set  some  in  the  church,  first  apostles, 
secondarily  prophets,  thirdly  teachers,  after  that  miracles, 
then  gifts  of  healings,  helps,  governments,  diversities  of 
tongues."  (i  COR.  xii.  27  :  28.) 

"  I  therefore,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord,  beseech  you  that  ye 
walk  worthy  of  the  vocation  wherewith  ye  are  called. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  49 

"  With  all  lowliness  and  meekness,  with  long  suffering, 
forbearing  one  another  in  love  ; 

"  Endeavoring  to  keep  the  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
bond  of  peace. 

"  There  is  one  body,  and  one  Spirit,  even  as  you  are 
called  in  one  hope  of  your  calling ; 

"  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism, 

"One  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and 
through  all,  and  in  you  all. 

"  But  unto  every  one  of  us  is  given  grace  according  to 
the  measure  of  the  gift  of  Christ. 

"  Wherefore  he  saith,  When  he  ascended  up  on  high,  he 
led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men. 

"  (Now  that  he  ascended,  what  is  it  but  that  he  also 
descended  first  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth  ? 

"  He  that  descended  is  the  same  also  that  ascended  up 
far  above  all  heavens,  that  he  might  fill  all  things.) 

•'  And  he  gave  some,  apostles ;  and  some,  prophets ; 
and  some,  evangelists ;  and  some,  pastors  and  teachers  ; 

"  For  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ : 

"  Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ : 

"  That  we  henceforth  be  no  more  children,  tossed  to  and 
fro,  and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  by  the 
sleight  of  men,  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they  lie  in 
wait  to  deceive ; 

"  But  speaking  the  truth  in  love,  may  grow  up  into  him 
in  all  things,  which  is  the  head,  even  Christ : 

"  From  whom  the  whole  body  fitly  joined  together  and 
compacted  by  that  which  every  joint  supplieth,  according 
to  the  effectual  working  in  the  measure  of  every  part,  maketh 
increase  of  the  body  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love. 


50  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  This  I  say  therefore,  and  testify  in  the  Lord,  that  ye 
henceforth  walk  not  as  other  Gentiles  walk,  in  the  vanity  of 
their  mind, 

"Having  the  understanding  darkened,  being  alienated 
from  the  life  of  God  through  the  ignorance  that  is  in  them, 
because  of  the  blindness  of  their  heart."  (EPH.  iv.  i  to  18.) 

Please  read  Corinthians,  the  i2th  chapter,  which  we 
quote  as  fitting  instruction,  and  as  the  original  pattern  in 
church  building. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OVV  concerning  spiritual  gifts,  brethren,  I  would  not 
have  you  ignorant. 

"Ye  know  that  ye  were  Gentiles,  carried  away 
unto  these  dumb  idols,  even  as  ye  were  led. 

"  Wherefore  I  give  you  to  understand,  that  no  man 
speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  God  calleth  Jesus  accursed :  and 
that  no  man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

"  Now  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit. 

"And  there  are  differences  of  administrations,  but  the 
same  Lord. 

"  And  there  are  diversities  of  operations,  but  it  is  the 
same  God  which  worketh  all  in  all. 

"  But  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  is  given  to  every 
man  to  profit  withal. 

"  For  to  one  is  given  by  the  Spirit  the  word  of  wisdom ; 
to  another  the  word  of  knowledge  by  the  same  Spirit ; 

"  To  another  faith  by  the  same  Spirit ;  to  another  the 
gifts  of  healing  by  the  same  Spirit ; 

"To    another    the    working  of    miracles;    to    another 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  51 

prophecy ;  to  another  discerning  of  spirits  ;*to  another  divers 
kinds  of  tongues ;  to  another  the  interpretation  of  tongues  : 

"But  all  these  worketh  that  one  and  the  selfsame 
Spirit,  dividing  to  every  man  severally  as  he  will. 

"  For  as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members,  and 
all  the  members  of  that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one 
body  .  so  also  is  Christ. 

"  For  by  one  Spirit  are  we  all  baptized  into  one  body, 
whether  we  be  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether  we  be  bond  or  free ; 
•  and  have  been  all  made  to  drink  into  one  Spirit. 

"  For  the  body  is  not  one  member,  but  many. 

"  If  the  foot  shall  say,  Because  I  am  not  the  hand,  I 
am  not  of  the  body ;  is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ? 

"And  if  the  ear  shall  say,  Because  I  am  not  the  eye, 
I  am  not  of  the  body ;  is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ? 

"  If  the  whole  body  were  an  eye,  where  were  the  hear- 
ing ?  If  the  whole  were  hearing,  where  were  the  smelling  ? 

"  But  now  hath  God  set  the  members  every  one  of 
them  in  the  body,  as  it  hath  pleased  him. 

"And  if  they  were  all  one  member,  where  were  the 
body? 

"  But  now  are  they  many  members,  yet  but  one  body. 

"And  the  eye  cannot  say  unto  the  hand,  I  have  no 
need  of  thee  :  nor  again  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have  no 
need  of  you. 

"  Nay,  much  more  those  members  of  the  body,  which 
seem  to  be  more  feeble,  are  necessary  : 

"  And  those  members  of  the  body,  which  we  think  to 
be  less  honourable,  upon  those  we  bestow  more  abundant 
honour;  and  our  uncomely  parts  have  more  abundant 
comeliness. 

"  For  our  comely  parts  have  no  need :  but  God  hath 
tempered  the  body  together,  having  given  more  abundant 
honour  to  that  part  wh;ch  lacked  : 


52  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  That  there  should  be  no  schism  in  the  body  ;  but  that 
the  members  should  have  the  same  care  one  for  another. 

"And  whether  one  member  suffer,  all  the  members 
suffer  with  it ;  or  one  member  be  honoured,  all  the  members 
rejoice  with  it. 

"  Now  ye  are .  the  body  of  Christ,  and  members  in  par- 
ticular. 

"And  God  hath  set  some  in  the  church,  first  apostles, 
secondarily  prophets,  thirdly  teachers,  after  that  miracles, 
then  gifts  of  healings,  helps,  governments,  diversities  of 
tongues. 

"Are  all  apostles?  are  all  prophets?  are  all  teachers? 
are  all  workers  of  miracles  ? 

"Have  all  the  gifts  of  healing?  do  all  speak  with  ton- 
gues ?  do  all  interpret  ? 

"  But j  covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts:  and  yet  shew  I 
unto  you  a  more  excellent  way.  (I  COR.  xii.) 

What  is  the  more  excellent  way?  What  did  Wesley 
say  ?  What  does  Paul  say  ?  In  the  following  chapter  we 
read : 

"Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels, 
and  have  not  charity,  I  am  become  as  sounding  brass,  or  a 
tinkling  cymbal. 

"  And  though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  under- 
stand all  mysteries,  and  all  knowledge ;  and  though  I  have 
all  faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have  not 
charity,  I  am  nothing. 

"  And  though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor, 
and  though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not 
charity,  it  profiteth  me  nothing. 

"  Charity  suffereth  long,  and  is  kind ;  charity  envieth  not ; 
charity  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up, 

"  Doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly,  seeketh  not  her  own, 
is  not  easily  provoked,  thinketh  no  evil ; 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFEST  A  TIONS.  53 

"  Rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the  truth ; 

"  Beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all 
things,  endureth  all  things. 

"  Charity  never  faileth  :  but  whether  there  be  prophecies, 
they  shall  fail ;  whether  there  be  tongues,  they  shall  cease  ; 
whether  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away. 

"  For  we  know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy  in  part. 

"  But  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then  that  which 
is  in  part  shall  be  done  away. 

"  When  I  was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as 
a  child,  I  thought  as  a  child  :  but  when  I  became  a  man,  I 
put  away  childish  things. 

"  For  now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly ;  but  then  face 
to  face  ;  now  I  know  in  part ;  but  then  shall  I  know  even  as 
also  I  am  known.  (I  COR.  xiii.  i  :i2.) 

Prophecies  may  fail,  tongues  did  and  may  cease,  know'- 
edge,  as  they  acquired  it,  might  vanish  away;  but  only 
because  it  was  partial  and  incomplete ;  for  when  that  which 
is  perfect  is  come,  that  which  is  in  part  will  necessarily  have 
to  give  way.  But  we  must  not  forget  that  the  very  means 
that  were  designed  "  for  the  perfection  of  thef  saints  "  in  the 
early  church,  and  of  bringing  about  that  development  and 
perfection  of  human  character,  were  designed  and  "  set  in 
the  church,"  and  to  continue  until  we  all  in  the  unity  of 
the  faith — not  division  of  multiplied  and  different  faiths  — 
"  come  to  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a 
perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness 
of  Christ ; 

"  That  we  henceforth  be  no  more  children,  tossed  to  and 
fro,  and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  by  the 
sleight  of  men,  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they  lie  in 
wait  to  deceive ; 

"  But  speaking  the  truth  in  love,  may  grow  up  into  him 
in  all  things,  which  is  the  head,  even  Christ. " 


54  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

Why  are  we  tossed  to  and  fro  "  with  every  wind  of  '  new  ' 
doctrine"  that  blows?  Is  it  not  because  we  have  ceased 
to  speak  the  truth  in  love,  and  have  turned  away  our  ears 
unto  fables? 

Does  not  charity  rejoice  "  in  the  truth  "  ?  And  is  it  not 
true  that  the  world  is  in  darkness?  And  is  it  not  becoming 
in  us  to  seek  for  the  true  causes  of  failure  ?  And  is  it  char- 
ity to  deny  the  po>ver  of  God  as  defined  in  the  ancient 
church  and  promised  without  reservation  to  the  believer 
wherever  he  may  be  found  ?  and  does  not  Paul  immediately 
follow  in  his  letter  with  this:  "Follow  after  charity  and 
desire  spiritual  gifts  :  " 

"How  is  it  then,  brethern  ?  when  ye  come  together,  every 
one  of  you  hath  a  psalm,  hath  a  doctrine,  hath  a  tongue, 
hath  a  revelation,  hath  an  interpretation.  Let  all  things  be 
done  unto  edifying. 

"  If  any  man  speak  in  an  unknown  tongue,  let  it  be  by 
two,  or  at  the  most  by  three,  and  that  by  course  ;  and  let 
one  interpret. 

"  But  if  there  be  no  interpreter,  let  him  keep  silence  in 
the  church ;  and  let  him  speak  to  himself,  and  to  God. 

"  Let  the  prophets  speak  two  or  three,  and  let  the  other 
judge. 

"  If  any  thing  be  revealed  to  another  that  sitteth  by,  let 
the  first  hold  his  peace. 

"  For  ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by  one,  that  all  may  learn, 
and  all  may  be  comforted. 

"And  the  spirits  of  the  prophets  are  subject  to  the 
prophets. 

"  For  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of  peace, 
as  in  all  churches  of  the  saints. 

'•'  If  any  man  think  himself  to  be  a  prophet,  or  spiritual, 
let  him  acknowledge  that  the  things  that  I  write  unto  you 
are  the  commandments  of  the  Lord. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  55 

'•  Wherefore,  brethren,  covet  to  prophesy,  and  forbid  not 
to  speak  with  tongues. 

"  Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order." 

We  are  told  that  these  gifts  are  done  away,  because  "  no 
longer  needed,"  and  that  they  were  given  anciently  for  the 
establishment  of  the  church,  and  that  Protestant,  like  Cath- 
olic religion  is  "  established  "  by  the  record  of  "innumerable 
miracles  and  the  lives  and  deaths  of  innumerable  saints," 
and  not  by  the  continual  presence  of  Christ  with  the  church, 
as  represented  by  the  spirit  of  truth,  the  only  way  by  which 
he  can  be  represented  or  saved  from  misrepresentation. 
And  when  Mr.  Ingersoll  says  that  "  in  order  for  miracles  to 
be  of  any  value,  they  would  have  to  be  perpetual,"  he  says 
the  truth;  and  if  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  Mr. 
Ingersoll  or  myself  are  just  as  mu<*h  entitled  to  the  gifts  of 
God  when  the  conditions  are  complied  with,  as  were  they 
anciently,  and  if  complying  with  the  same  law  that  the  Cor- 
inthians did,  we  receive  not  the  same  evidences  in  the 
church,  we  shall  be  obliged  to  take  Mr.  Ingersoll's  side  of 
the  question  so  far  as  any  certainty  about  the  Christian 
religion  is  concerned.  If  a  record  of  miracles  is  enough  to 
*'  establish  "  the  church  to-day,  the  first  church  should  rea- 
sonably have  been  satisfied  with  the  recorded  miracles  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  upon  that  assumption  the  miracles 
ot"  Jesus  and  his  followers  were  superfluous.  "  We  know 
that  God  spake  to  Moses,"  said  they,  "  but  as  for  this  fel- 
low, we  know  not  whence  he  is."  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
they  didn't  or  couldn't  know  any  such  thing ;  it  was  faith 
in  a  record  or  a  tradition,  and  could  not  be  made  to  stand 
as  proof  of  God's  power  or  unchangeability  toward  them. 

But  the  gift  of  God  to  the  church  is  not  one,  but  many, 
and  divided,  severally,  as  he  will,  and  according  to  his  wis- 
dom, and  according  to  the  capacity  of  the  individual. 

"  Now  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit. 


56  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"And  there  are  differences  of  administrations,  but  the 
same  Lord. 

"  And  there  are  diversities  'of  operations,  but  it  is  the 
same  God  which  worketh  all  in  all. 

"  But  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  is  given  to  every 
man  to  profit  withal. 

"FOR  TO  ONE   is   GIVEN   BY   THE   SPIRIT   THE    WORD    OF 
WISDOM." 

Is  wisdom,  even  wisdom  which  this  world  cannot  give, 
no  longer  needed  in  the  church? 

"  AND  TO  ANOTHER   THE*  WORD    OF   KNOWLEDGE   BY   THE 
SAME  SPIRIT." 

By  this  gift  positive  information  concerning  God  and 
spiritual  things  were  to  be  revealed,  but  it  was  given,  not 
to  be  revealed  as  a  law  to  the  whole  church,  but  for  the 
comfort  of  the  individual  and  for  his  growth  in  heavenly 
and  divine  things.  As  such  it  might  be  partial  and  incom- 
plete, because  the  individual  was  such  and  not  capable  of 
receiving  only  "  in  part." 

"To  ANOTHER  FAITH  BY  THE  SAME  SPIRIT." 

"Faith  is  an  assurance  of  things  hoped  for  and  an  evidence 
of  things  not  seen."  It  was  the  gift  of  God,  especially  to 
individuals  who  obeyed  Christ's  law  and  were  become  a 
part  of  the  visible  "  body ;"  all  were  to  have  it  in  some 
measure  or  degree,  but  individuals  were  especially  endowed 
with  this  peculiar  spiritual  talent  or  gift,  so  that  there  might 
be  a  diversity  to  edification  in  the  church. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  57 

"To  ANOTHER  THE  GIFTS  OF  HEALING  BY  THE  SAME 
SPIRIT." 

Fifty  years  ago  it  would  have  been  a  comparatively  easy 
matter  to  have  drawn  the  line  in  regard  to  "  gifts  of  heal- 
ing," for  the  reason  that  these  gifts  were  not  claimed  unless 
in  a  very  obscure  way  ;  especially  was  this  true  of  the  popu- 
lar church.  But  our  day  witnesses  changes,  and  a  man  may 
not  be  considered  entirely  fanatical  who  believes  in  "  Divine 
healing,"  and  even  "  Christian  "  and  "  evangelical "  minis- 
ters lay  on  hands  and  anoint  with  oil  in  accordance  with 
the  Apostle  James'  instruction  to  the  church  anciently  for 
the  healing  of  the  sick.  While  outside  of  the  pale  of 
churches  the  very  air  has  been  full  at  times,  and  in  some 
quarters  it  has  amounted  to  a  popular  "  craze  "  of  Chris- 
tian science  healing,  or  "faith  cure,"  and  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  has  been  used  as  a  cat's  paw  to  pull  the  golden 
"  chestnut "  out  of  the  fire  and  into  the  pocket  of  the 
"  metaphysician,"  or  to  hedge  against  the  increasing  lifeless- 
ness  and  apathy  of  the  popular  church  by  springing  upon  it 
the  question  of  faith  cure  and  divine  healing  as  against  the 
position  which  the  orthordox  Christian  world  had  assumed 
for  centuries. 

Beside  all  these  has  arisen  an  army  of  "  mediums  "  and 
professional  " magnetic,"  "physiologic"  and  "mesmeric" 
"  healers,' .  who  "  lay  on  hands  "  in  a  wholesale  way  that  it 
is  probable  that  the  Apostle  James  never  dreamed  of. 

It  will  take  but  little  thought  or  but  little  reading  to  dis- 
cern the  difference  between  "James,  a  servant  of  God"  and 
an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  members  of  the  church, 
those  whom  he  addressed  as  "  my  brethren  "  in  his  advice 
to  them  :  "  Is  any  among  you  afflicted  let  him  pray.  Is  any 
sick  among  YOU  ?  Let  him  call  for  the  Elders  of  the  church 
and  let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him  with  oil  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  ;  and  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the 


58  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

sick,  and  the  Lord  shall  raise  them  up,  and  if  they  have 
committed  sins  they  shall  be  forgiven  him  "  QAS.  v,  13:  15  ) 
and  this  modern  army  and  mongrel  horde  who  for  filthy 
lucre's  sake,,  and  for  every  reason  but  the  right,  rational  and 
properly  consistent  scriptural  one,  use  this  sacred  name  and 
word  to  fleece  the  people,  to  disgust  humanity  and  destroy 
faith  in  any  or  everything. 

The  gift  of  healing  was  one  only  among  the  varied  and 
many  graces  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  original 
church,  and  not  the  all  and  in  all  upon  which  mankind  were 
to  predicate  a  faith  or  to  be  the  test  of  truth. 

Dr.  Cullis,  of  Boston,  builds  a  faith  cure  home  or  hospital 
for  consumptives,  cripples,  and  the  sick  generally,  and  as 
prayer,  no  matter  how  faithless,  is  better  than  pills,  and 
faith,  no  matter  how  much  it  may  savor  of  credulity,  is  bet- 
ter than  physic,  good  air,  good  food,  good  nursing  better 
than  "scientific"  drug  medication,  we  need  not  be  surprised 
to  hear  of  u  cures  "  and  of  affidavits  to  that  effect ;  but  what 
may  be  said  of  "  Dr."  Cullis,  is  said  of  spiritualists,  who  "  lay 
on  hands,"  and  furnish  affidavits  along  with  the  thousand 
newspaper  advertisements — the  "bitter"  and  "  pill  "  alma- 
nac certified  wonders. 

All  these  deny  the  existence,  or  practicability,  or  use,  of 
all,  or  most,  of  the  other  manifestations  of  spiritual  power, 
known  and  exercised  in  the  ancient  church. 

In  defense,  however,  of  the  necessity,  or  idea,  that  it  was 
designed  for  the  church  in  all  ages,  we  might  speak  of  the 
arguments  put  forth  by  professed  representative  ministers  of 
Christ,  as  well  as  others  who  claim  that  the  gifts  of  healing 
have  been  substituted  by  the  attainments  of  medical  science. 
In  reply  to  which,  we  offer :  that  the  "  science  of  medi- 
cine," so  far  as  our  memory  or  experience  goes,  has  proved 
to  be  about  as  changing  and  unreliable  as  human  theology, 
and  the  cure  of  the  body  by  the  use  of  drugs  is  very  nearly 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  59 

as  much  of  an  unsettled  problem  as  are  the  theological  pre- 
scriptions compounded  by  doctors  of  divinity  for  the  relief 
of  the  soul.  At  least  it  is  safe  to  say  and  to  quote  reliable 
and  unquestioned  authority  of  eminent  medical  practioners  i 
that  "the  science  of  medicine,"  as  principally  practiced  to- 
day, "is  no  science  at  all,"  but  simply  an  experiment  upon 
the  human  body."  This  statement,  beside  others  to  the 
same  effect  the  writer  has,  not  only  in  writing,  but  from  the 
lips  of  physicians,  whose  professional  standing  has  never  been 
questioned.  Men,  Women,  and  children,  sick,  dying  and 
dead,  all  around  us,  which  an  increase  of  doctors,  nor  of  their 
learning,  or  systems,  are  not  powerful  enough  to  prevent,  are 
with  us,  as  in  the  day  of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  and  until 
greater  certainty  marks  the  result  of  modern  medical  prac- 
tice, it  is  too  early  to  say  that  the  gift  of  healing  is  no 
longer  needed,  or  longer  to  be  sought  after  and  "  coveted  " 
by  the  church  of  God. 

A  careful  observation,  however,  of  all  the  conditions  upon 
which  the  promise  and  gift  of  healing  is  to  be  bestowed, 
carelessness  and  failure  to  understand  which  has  been  the 
cause  of  mistakes  that  engendered  doubt  and  trial,  should 
be  had  by  members  of  Christ's  visible  body. 

Let  us  note  the  authoritative  counsel  of  the  apostle 
James,  QAMES  v,  14  :  15.) 

"  Is  any  sick  among  you  ?  let  him  call  for  the  elders  of 
the  church;  and  let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him 
with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  : 

"  And  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick,  and  the 
Lord  shall  raise  him  up ;  and  if  he  committed  sins,  they  shall 
be  forgiven  him." 

Let  us  remember  that  this  counsel  was  given  to  an  organ- 
ized body  of  believers  and  called  "  the  church,"  and  to  the 
elders  of  that  church,  and  cannot  consistently  nor  scrip- 
turally  be  construed  into  an  authority  for,  or  sanction  of  the 


60  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

heterogeneous  mass  of  metaphysical  healers,  faith  curists, 
"  divine  healing  "  by  the  laying  on  of  hands  of  not  only 
"  elders,"  but  women  or  anybody  else  who  has  learned  to  say 
"  Lord  !  Lord  !" 

"And  the  prayer  of  faith  "  in  connection  with  the  rest, 
"  shall  save  the  sick."  What  is  faith  ?  is  it  the  possession  of 
an  intense  desire  for  the  sick  to  recover?  Oh  no  !  Is  it 
even  a  persuasion  or  belief  that  they  may  or  will  ?  No  in- 
deed !  Nor  does  the  presence  of  the  spirit,  sometimes  even 
in  great  power  and  comfort  warrant  us  in  the  conclusion 
that  the  sick  will  always  recover.  * 

Faith,  that  faith  which  did,  and  does  now  save  the  sick, 
"  is  an  assurance  of  things  hoped  for  "  and  "  an  evidence  of 
things  not  seen." 

As  a  novice  in  experience  and  early  and  first  acquaint- 
ances in  the  operations  and  workings  of  the  spirit,  even 
in  his  eldership,  the  writer  has  made  the  quite  common,  but 
troublesome  mistake  of  reckoning  the  fact  of  the  spirits  pres- 
ence in  comfort  and  great  power  at  the  bedside  of  the 
sick  as  reliable  token  of  their  recovery,  while  the  fact  was, 
and  often  is,  that  the  mind  of  the  spirit,  which  alone  can 
convey  that  prophetic  intelligence,  "  assurance,"  "  evidence," 
or  "  faith,"  referred  to  by  James,  may  be  wanting,  and  what 
is  true  of  the  church,  must  certainly  apply  to  the  world 

*  To  the  church  of  which  the  writer  is  a  member,  we  quote  from  the 
Revelations  given  to  the  church  of  Christ  in  our  days  D.  &  C.  42,  12 : 
"And  whosoever  among  you  are  sick  and  have  not  faith  to  be  healed, 
but  believe^  shall  be  nourished  with  all  tenderness,  with  herbs  and 
mild  food,  and  that  not  by  the  hand  of  an  enemy.  And  the  elders  of 
the  church,  two  or  more,  shall  be  called,  and  shall  pray  for,  and  lay 
their  hands  upon  them  in  my  (Christ's)  name;  and  if  they  die,  they 
shall  die  unto  me,  and  if  they  live,  they  shall  live  unto  me."  And  it 
shall  come  to  pass  that  those  that  die  in  me  shall  not  taste  of  death, 
for  it  shall  be  sweet  unto  them." 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  6l 

when  we  are  led  to  consider  the  abuse  that  the  word  faith 
has  been  subjected  to. 

A  man  or  woman  may  have  the  gift  of  faith,  intuition, 
foresight  or  premonition  at  a  sick  bedside  that  is  not  always 
shared  by  the  eldership,  which,  however,  is  to  be  a  guide  to 
them,  and  not  an  oracle  infallible  to  or  for  others. 

To  say  also  that  forgiveness  of  sins  follow  the  administra- 
tions of  modern  "healers"  of  every  sort,  who  quote  as  much  of 
James,  commission  as  authority  for  their  work  as  suits  their 
convenience,  is  of  itself  sufficient  repudiation  of  any  right 
to  use  this  promise  made  to  the  ancient  church  as  authority 
or  license  to  abuse  or  cover  the  scriptures  with  the  slime  of 
their  money  making-traffic. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  a  hard  matter  to  tell  whether  the 
presence  or  absence  of  anything  or  nothing  will  kill  or  cure. 

An  elder  or  elders  may  be  called  and  may  administer,  the 
sick  may  recover,  but  there  may  be  little  or  no  evidence 
that  their  recovery  is  due  to  any  special  interference  of  the 
Lord  or  exhibition  of  the  power  of  His  spirit  upon  the  body 
of  the  afflicted.  The  chances  are  that  in  a  majority  of  cases 
they  would  recover  anyhow ;  nothing  but  the  presence  and 
instruction  given  by  the  mind  of  the  spirit  could  settle  mat- 
ters with  the  writer.  Administration  does  not  always  cure. 
Elders  nor  oil  will  have  effect  save  by  the  attendant  "  prayer 
of  faith,"  and  while  it  may  be  said  that  it  will  not  kill,  the 
wise,  cautious  and  intelligent  understanding  and  use  of 
God's  design  in  bestowing  this  gift  of  healing  is  greatly 
needed,  not  only  by  the  world,  but  by  the  church  of  Christ 
itself. 

"  To  ANOTHER  THE  WORKING  OF  MIRACLES." 

It  seems  to  be  quite  a  prevalent  idea  that  miracles  were 
common  and  of  every  day  occurrence,  and  always  to  be  had 
for  the  asking  in  the  days  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  and 


62  SPIRITUAL   GIFTS  AND 

that  notwithstanding  the  claim  that  they  are  no  longer 
needed,  the  gospel  and  church  having  been  established 
through  them,  or  largely  so,  at  least,  yet  it  is  one  of  the 
most  common  things  that  the  writer  has  ever  met  with, 
especially  among  church  people  and  ministers  is  a  professed 
willingness  to  believe,  if  a  sign  or  a  miracle  is  shown,  that 
which  without  a  miracle  or  wonder  transcending  natural  ex- 
planation, would  be  rejected  as  anti-Christian  or  fanatical. 

Notwithstanding  this,  we  deny  that  Christ  or  the  Apostles 
designed  to  save  men  by  the  exhibition  of  miracles ;  espe- 
cially was  this  true  when  disconnected  from  His  teachings. 
The  record  must  be  and  we  believe  is  consistent  with  the 
first  commission. 

"And  he  said  unto  them,  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature. 

"  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved ;  but 
he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned. 

"And  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe ;  In  my 
name  shall  they  cast  out  devils ;  they  shall  speak  with  new 
tongues ; 

"  They  shall  take  up  serpents ;  and  if  they  drink  any 
deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them ;  they  shall  lay  hands  on 
the  sick,  and  they  shall  recover. 

"  So  then  after  the  Lord  had  spoken  unto  them,  he  was 
received  up  into  heaven,  and  sat  on  the  right  hand  of  God. 

"And  they  went  forth,  and  preached  every  where,  the 
Lord  working  with  them,  and  confirming  the  word  with  signs 
following.  Amen."  (MARK  xvi,  15  :  20.) 

The  world  having  lost  the  theory,  formula  or  doctrine  of 
the  gospel  of  Christ,  the  "power"  of  true  Godliness  that 
was  anciently  attached  to  it  having  necessarily  been  with- 
drawn, the  Lord  could  no  longer  consistently  work  with  a 
people  who  denied  his  doctrine ;  substitute  something  else 
as  a  rule  of  obedience,  and  thus  foster  false  doctrine  by 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  63 

confirming  in  the  minds  of  men  something  other  than  "the 
word." 

A  wholesome  rule  of  life  was  to  precede ;  a  law  of  moral 
reformation  was  necessary ;  repentance  from  dead  works ; 
and  useless,  unprofitable  and  man-made  ceremonies  were 
to  be  had.  The  believer  was  to  be  taught  to  observe  "all 
things"  that  He  had  commanded  before  He  should  justify 
their  faith  in  Him  after  his  departure  by  confirming"the  word" 
with  not  only  the  gift  of  miracles  in  the  church,  but  all'  the 
other  gifts  as  well.  In  fact,  Luke  has  forgotten  to  say  in 
connection  with  the  last  commission  anything  about  physical 
miracles,  but  has  not  forgotten  that  which,  to  the  mind  of 
the  writer,  is  fully  as  important,  when  he,  in  his  history  of 
the  gospel,  writes,  (LUKE  xxiv,  44  :  47) : 

"And  He  said  unto  them,  These  are  the  words  which  I 
spake  unto  you,  while  I  was  yet  with  you,  that  all  things 
must  be  fulfilled,  which  were  written  in  the  law  of  Moses, 
and  in  the  prophets,  and  in  the  Psalms,  concerning  me. 

"Then  opened  He  their  understanding,  that  they  might 
understand  the  scriptures, 

"And  said  unto  them,  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it 
behoved  Christ  to  suffer,  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the 
third  day : 

"  And  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be 
preached  in  His  name  among  all  nations,beginning  at  Jerusa- 
lem." 

The  presence  to-day  of  a  spirit  which,  possessed  of,  would 
guide  men  into  all  truth,  takes  the  place  of  the  Master  him- 
self in  so  "opening  the  understanding"  of  men,  especially 
the  benighted  and  befogged  theologians  of  the  day,  "  that 
they" — as  well  as  the  ancient  ministry — "  might  under- 
stand the  scriptures,"  and  instead  of  the  confusion  wrought, 
might  see  eye  to  eye  in  these  important  matters. 

Says  Paul,  (I  COR.  i,  4  :  13)  : 


64  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  I  thank  my  God  always  on  your  behalf,  for  the  grace  of 
God  which  is  given  you  by  Jesus  Christ ; 

"That  in  every  thing  ye  are  enriched  by  him,  in  all  utter- 
ance, and  in  all  knowledge  ; 

"  Even  as  the  testimony  of  Christ  was  confirmed  in  you  : 

"  S0  that  ye  come  behind  in  no  gift;  waiting  for  the  com- 
ing of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ : 

"  Who  shall  also  confirm  you  unto  the  end,  that  ye  may 
be  blameless  in  the  day  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  God  is  faithful,  by  whom  ye  were  called  unto  the  fellow- 
ship of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

"  Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  name  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that  ye  all  speak  the  same  thing,  and  that  there 
be  no  divisions  among  you  ;  but  that  ye  be  perfectly  joined 
together  in  the  same  mind  and  in  the  same  judg- 
ment. 

"  For  it  hath  been  declared  unto  me  of  you,  my  brethren, 
by  them  which  are  of  the  house  of  Chloe,  that  there  are 
contentions  among  you. 

"  Now  this  I  say,  that  every  one  of  you  saith,  I  am  of 
Paul ;  and  I  of  Apollos  ;  and  I  of  Cephas  ;  and  I  of  Christ. 
.  "  Is  Christ  divided  ?  was  Paul  crucified  for  you  ?  or  were 
ye  baptized  in  the  name  of  Paul?  " 

But  says  one,  "  division  is  a  sign  of  liberality,  and  agree- 
ment an  evidence  of  the  loss  of  independence,  freedom, 
progress." 

Oh  !  no,  this  not  necessarily  true,  for  Jesus  himself  said, 
(LUKE  xii,  49  :  52) : 

"  I  am  come  to  send  fire  on  the  earth  ;  and  what  will  I, 
if  it  be  already  kindled  ? 

"  But  I  have  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with ;  and  how  am 
I  straitened  till  it  be  accomplished  ! 

"  Suppose  ye  that  I  am  come  to  give  peace  on  earth  ?  I 
tell  you,  Nay  ;  but  rather  division  : 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  65 

"For  from  henceforth  there  shall  be  five  in  one  house 
divided,  three  against  two,  and  two  against  three. 

"  The  father  shall  be  divided  against  the  son,  and  the  son 
against  the  father;  the  mother  against  the  daughter,  and 
the  daughter  against  the  mother ;  the  mother-in-law  against 
her  daughter-in-law,  and  the  daughter-in-law  against  her 
mother-in-law." 

Was  He  justified  in  this  statement? 

As  interpreted  by  man,  no.  As  interpreted  and  explained 
by  Himself,  yes. 

As  to-day,  so  then,  the  land  was  filled  with  religious  error, 
and  certainty  was  nowhere.  Doubt  and  distrust  of  every- 
thing, or  of  anything  as  being  the  truth  hung  over  the  world 
like  a  pall.  "  The  religious  world,"  according  to  Mosheim, 
"  were  in  a  state  of  confusion  and  constantly  showing  their 
fallibility  by  being  divided  into  an  innumerable  number 
and  variety  of  sects." 

"The  truth  shall  make  you  free,"  said  Jesus,  and  its 
possession  was  worth  the  war — a  war  not  of  carnal  weap- 
ons, by  which  the  sword  forged  by  men  was  to  be  used, 
with  this  word  as  authority,  to  furnish  the  awful  history 
we  have  before  us.  Were  the  world  already  in  possession 
of  the  truth  that  saves,  His  declaration  would  have  been 
unwarranted.  The  war  between  truth  and  error  was  to  be 
waged.  As  the  everlasting  head  and  representative  of 
saving  truths,  He  proposed  no  compromise ;  He  drew  no 
carnal  weapon,  but  told  with  unflinching  courage,  the  world 
of  its  error,  and  illustrated  with  a  wisdom  and  heroism  un- 
paralleled, the  thorny,  tearful,  and  unpopular  way  that  led 
to  heavenly  truth  and  everlasting  salvation  for  the  human 
family. 

The  call  to  salvation  was  heeded,  not  by  families  or 
flocks,  but  by  individuals.  The  good  He  promised  was 
worth  more  than  local  friendships,  "  and  a  man's  foes  "  be- 


66  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

came  those  "  of  his  own  household."  They  were  his 
enemies;  he  was  not  theirs.  He  proposed  to  follow  the 
Master  to  higher  grounds,  and  even  dared  to  believe  that 
He  was  wiser,  more  powerful,  and  could  do  more  for  him 
than  even  father,  mother,  brother,  wife,  or  any  earthly  friend. 
His  doctrine  was  rational,  pure,  holy,  practical ;  why  should 
he  not  obey  even  unto  death  ?  To  remain  with  friends  in 
error,  was  no  lasting  benefit  to  them,  and  to  the  truly  brave 
and  wise,  whether  among  men,  with  angels,  or  God,  it  would 
be  a  spectacle  of  cowardice  and  of  evident  unfitness  for  the 
society  of  Jesus  Christ  or  of  his  cross-bearing  and  unpop- 
lar  disciple  in  any  age. 

The  unity  that  Paul  urged  was  the  unity  of  the  church, 
and  not  an  agreement  that  one  doctrine  was  as  good  as 
another ;  that  Paul  was  the  best  preacher,  or  Apollos'  elo- 
quence ought  to  command  a  higher  salary,  or  that  Cephas 
(Peter)  was  better  at  lifting  a  church  mortgage.  They 
were  to  be  united  upon  the  doctrine  and  leadership  of  Jesus 
Christ  alone,  and  in  the  continuance  of  the  Master's  com- 
mission "  to  teach  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you."  Thus  also  wrote  Paul  to  Timothy  (II  TIMOTHY  ii, 
i  to  5.)  : 

"  Thou  therefore,  my  son,  be  strong  in  the  grace  that  is 
in  Christ  Jesus. 

"  And  the  things  that  thou  has  heard  of  me  among  many 
witnesses,  the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful  men,  who  shall 
be  able'  to  teach  others  also. 

"  Thou  therefore  endure  hardness,  as  a  good  soldier  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

"  No  man  that  warreth  entangleth  himself  with  the  affairs 
of  this  life ;  that  he  may  please  him  who  hath  chosen  him 
to  be  a  soldier. 

"  And  if  a  man  also  strive  for  masteries,  yet  is  he  not 
crowned,  except  he  strive  lawfully." 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  67 

The  war  of  differences  must  be  carried  on  lawfully  and  in 
defense  of  "  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus." 
only.  To  preserve  this  all-important  message  was  salva- 
tion ;  to  refuse  to  maintain  it,  even  at  the  cost  of  local  tem- 
poral peace,  was  ruin. 

"  Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them  also  which 
shall  believe  on  me  through  their  word; 

"  That  they  all  may  be  one  ;  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me, 
and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  Us  :  that  the 
world  may  believe  that  thou  hast  sent  me. 

"  Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth  :  thy  word  is  truth. 

"  As  thou  hast  sent  me  into  the  world,  even  so  have  I 
also  sent  them  into  the  world. 

"  And  for  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself,  that  they  also 
might  be  sanctified  through  the  truth."  QOHN  xvii,  20  :2i, 
and  i  yth  to  iQth  verses.) 

We  hear  a  great  deal  of  the  doctrine  of  "  sanctification  " 
and  "  holiness "  nowadays,  with  the  question,  however, 
unsettled  as  to  what  the  "  word  "  or  "  the  truth  "  is  about  it. 
Sanctification  was  obtained,  not  by  witnessing  miracles  or 
the  offer  of  money  by  Simon  Magus,  but  by  possession  of 
the  spirit,  and  belief  of  and  obedience  to  the  truth  as 
taught  by  the  Saviour  of  Mankind  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago. 

"  But  there  was  a  certain  man,  called  Simon,  which  before- 
time  in  the  same  city  used  sorcery,  and  bewitched  the  peo- 
ple of  Samaria,  giving  out  that  himself  was  some  great  one  : 

"  To  whom  they  all  gave  heed,  from  the  least  to  the 
greatest,  saying,  This  man  is  the  great  power  of  God. 

"  And  to  him  they  had  regard,  because  that  of  long  time 
he  had  bewitched  them  with  sorceries. 

"  But  when  they  believed  Philip  preaching  the  things  con- 
cerning the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
they  were  baptized,  both  men  and  women. 


68  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  Then  Simon  himself  believed  also  :  and  when  he  was 
baptized,  he  continued  with  Philip,  and  wondered,  behold- 
ing the  miracles  and  signs  which  were  done. 

"  Now  when  the  apostles  which  were  at  Jerusalem  heard 
that  Samaria  had  received  the  word  of  God,  they  sent  unto 
them  Peter  and  John  : 

11  Who,  when  they  were  come  down,  prayed  for  them,  that 
they  might  receive  the  Holy  Ghost : 

"  (For  as  yet  he  was  fallen  upon  none  of  them  :  only  they 
were  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.) 

"  Then  laid  they  their  hands  on  them,  and  they  received 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  And  when  Simon  saw  that  through  laying  on  of  the 
apostles'  hands  the  Holy  Ghost  was  given,  he  offered  them 
money, 

"  Saying,  Give  me  also  this  power,  that  on  whomsoever  I 
lay  hands,  he  may  receive  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  But  Peter  said  unto  him,  Thy  money  perish  with  thee, 
because  thou  hast  thought  that  the  gift  of  God  may  be  pur- 
chased with  money. 

"  Thou  hast  neither  part  nor  lot  in  this  matter  :  for  thy 
heart  is  not  right  in  the  sight  of  God. 

"  Repent  therefore  of  this  thy  wickedness,  and  pray  God, 
if  perhaps  the  thought  of  thine  heart  may  be  forgiven  thee. 

"  For  I  perceive  that  thou  art  in  the  gall  of  bitterness, 
and  in  the  bond  of  iniquity."  (Acrs  viii.  9  to  23.) 

"To  ANOTHER  PROPHECY." 

The  Apostle  Peter  upon  Pentecost  day,  affirmed  the  un- 
changeability  of  God,  and  that  he  was  no  respector  of  per- 
sons, but  that  in  "  every  age  "  he  that  fears  God  by  keeping 
his  commandments  "and  worketh  righteousness,"  that  righ- 
teousness which  is  by  faith  in  the  truth  and  revealed  alone 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  69 

m  the  gospel — was  accepted  with  him  when  he .  said  (Acrs 
ii.  14  :  18)  : 

"  Ye  men  of  Judaea,  and  all  ye  that  dwell  at  Jerusalem, 
he  this  known  unto  you,  and  hearken  to  my  words : 

"  For  these  are  not  drunken,  as  ye  suppose,  seeing  it  is 
but  the  third  hour  of  the  day. 

"  But  this  is  that  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet  Joel ; 

"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  saith  God,  I 
will  pour  out  of  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh  :  and  your  sons  and 
your  daughters  shall  prophesy,  and  your  young  men  shall  see 
visions,  and  your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams : 

'  •  And  on  my  servants  and  on  my  handmaidens  I  will  pour 
out  in  those  days  of  my  Spirit ;  and  they  shall  prophesy'1 

Who  shall  deny  the  promise  of  God  to  the  true  "  servants 
and  handmaidens"  of  the  Lord  in  the  last  days?  or  what 
shall  prevent  the  fulfillment  of  this  word?  even  though 
Babylon's  priests  shall  say  :  '•  These  things  are  done  away 
and  are  no  longer  needed." 

To  say  that  this  prophecy  of  Joel's  was  fulfilled  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  is  but  to  say  that  we  "  do  not  know  the 
scriptures,  nor  the  power  of  G0d,"  as  even  a  casual  read- 
ing of  the  second  chapter  of  Joel,  from  whom  Peter  has 
quoted,  will  show : 

"And  I  will  shew  wonders  in  heaven  above,  and  signs  in 
the  earth  beneath  ;  blood,  and  fire,  and  vapour  of  smoke  : 

"The  sun  shall  be  turned  into  darkness,  and  the  moon 
into  blood,  before  that  great  and  notable  day  of  the  Lord 
come  :"  (Acrs  ii.  19  :  20.) 

This  did  not  take  place  upon  Pentecost  day,  neither  has 
it  yet  taken  place.  No  more  has  the  spirit  yet  been 
"poured  out  upon  all  flesh"  for  Paul  says  that:  ( i  COR.  xv.  39. ) 

"All  flesh  is  not  the  same  flesh  :  but  there  is  one  kind  of 
flesh  of  men,  another  flesh  of  beasts,  another  of  fishes,  and 
another  of  birds." 


70  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

Those  1 20  souls  did  not  constitute  all  flesh,  but  the  com- 
plete fulfillment  of  Joel's  prophecy  is  evidently  to  be  at  or 
in  the  time  spoken  of  by  the  prophet  Isaiah  in  the  9th  chap- 
ter, 6th  to  loth  verses,  inclusive,  when  "The  wolf  also  shall 
dwell  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the 
kid  ;  and  the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  fatling  together, 
and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them."  "And  the  cow  and  the 
bear  shall  feed  ;  their  young  ones  shall  lie  down  together ;  and 
the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  ox."  "And  the  sucking 
child  shall  play  on  the  hole  of  the  asp,  and  the  weaned 
child  shall  put  his  hand  on  the  adder's  den."  "They  shall 
not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountains ;  for  the  earth 
shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea." 

Modern  theologians  would  EMPTY  the  earth  of  all  knowl- 
edge concerning  God  by  depriving  mankind  of  the  only 
means  by  which  he  may  be  known.  Remember  Jesus 
said,  "  and  this  is  life  eternal  to  know  thee,  the  only  true 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent."  And  Paul 
has  testified  unto  us  that  "no  man  can  say,"  with  knowledge, 
"that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  never  has  been  neither  can  be  known  only  by 
the  manifestation  of  its  various  "gifts  "  to  men. 

This  acme  and  complete  work  of  the  spirit  of  Almighty 
God  is  thus  shown  by  Isaiah  in  its  wonderful  power  to  trans- 
form not  only  mankind,  but  the  brute  creation,  into  the 
ideal  estate  portrayed  by  this  prophet  of  the  living  God 
But  its  work  commences  with  mankind — even  us — who 
through  obedience  to  law  having  received  of  the  "  first  fruits 
of"  this  "spirit,"  "being"  thus  "made  partakers  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  of  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,"  we 
"prophesy  in  part"  until  with  education  by  these  heavenly 
powers  "  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  to  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,"  unto  a  perfect  man,  "  unto  the 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  71 

measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ,"  and  thus  are 
made  fit  for  the  seal  of  life  eternal. 

"  This  is  that  "  (spirit) ,  said  Peter,  not  that  it  was  the  ful- 
fillment of  Joel's  prophecy,  for,  if  those  were  "  the  last  days," 
what  "  days  "  are  we  living  in  ?  The  context  in  Joel  also 
clearly  denies  the  assumption  of  fulfillment  in  Peter's  day. 

Jesus,  speaking  of  the  office  work  of  his  chosen  and 
authorized  representative,  says  :  "And  he  will  shew  you  things 
to  come,"  this  alone  would  show  the  necessity  of  the  gift  of 
prophecy. 

The  testimony  of  John  upon  the  isle  of  Patmos  is  con- 
clusive ; 

"And  I  fell  at  his  feet  to  worship  him.  And  he  said 
unto  me,  See  thou  do  it  not :  I  am  thy  fellow-servant,  and 
of  thy  brethren  that  have  the  testimony  of  Jesus  :  worship 
God  :  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  spirit  of  prophesy" 
(REV.  xix.  10.) 

"  Here  is  the  patience  of  the  saints  :  here  are  they  that 
keep  the  commandments  of  God,  and  the  faith  of  Jesus." 
(REV.  xiv.  12.) 

"  And  when  he  had  opened  the  fifth  seal,  I  saw  under  the 
altar  the  souls  of  them  that  were  slain  for  the  word  of  God, 
and  for  the  testimony  which  they  held."  (REV.  vi.  9.) 

"  And  the  dragon  was  wroth  with  the  woman,  and  went  to 
make  war  with  the  remnant  of  her  seed,  which  keep  the  com- 
mandments oj  God,  and  have  the  testimony  of  Jesus 
Christ:'  (REV.  xii.  17.) 

Great  care  and  caution,  however,  in  the  use  of  not 
only  the  gift  of  prophecy  in  the  church,  as  had  among 
its  membership  or  laity,  but  of  all  the  other  gifts  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  are  necessary,  for  as  in  Paul  and  John's  day,  it  is 
evident  that  there  are  "  many  spirits  gone  abroad  into  the 
world  "  to-day  as  it  is  that  there  are  any  spirits  at  all,  and 
there  is  a  liability  to  deception  through  seducing,  flatter- 


72  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

ing,  and  false  spirits,  by  imitation  or  counterfeiting  of  the 
gifts  of  the  gospel ;  for  whether  we  deny  the  existence  of  a 
"  devil "  or  the  agency  of  spiritual  powers  of  an  evil  character 
that  are  superior  to  the  natural  wisdom  of  mortals,  or  do  not, 
it  is  evident  to  the  most  "liberal"  mind  that  admits  spirit 
agency  at  all,  that  two  spirit  powers  disagreeing,  both  can- 
not represent  the  real  truth,  though  for  purposes  of  decep- 
tion there  may  be  an  admixture,  and  for  this  purpose  was 
the  gift  of  "  discernment  of  spirits  "  anciently  bequeathed 
by  the  head  of  the  church  to  the  body. 

"  There  is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Al- 
mighty giveth  him  understanding,"  said  Job  (Joe  xxxii,  8), 
and  it  is  that  inspiration,  in  contradistinction  to  all  others 
that  the  truly  wise  will  seek  to  possess,  as  well  also  will  ex- 
perience in,  and  not  ignorance  of  spiritual  gifts,  tend  to 
avoid  error  as  we  become  acquainted  by  exercise  with  and 
observation  of  them  in  the  church.  This,  I  apprehend,  is 
the  meaning  of  Paul  when  he  says  in  i  COR.  iv.  i  : 

"  Let  a  man  so  account  of  us,  as  of  the  ministers  of  Christ, 
and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God.  " 

Also  in  II  COR.  iii.  5  :  6. 

"  Not  that  we  are  sufficient  of  ourselves  to  think  any 
thing  as  of  ourselves  ;  but  our  sufficiency  is  of  God  ; 

"Who  also  hath  made  us  able  ministers  of  the  new  testa- 
ment j  not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit."* 

These  high  attainments  were  not  possessed  at  once  in 
full  measure  by  the  novice,  but,  as  in  our  advent  into  this 
world,  so  to  him  that  is  born  again,  not  of  corruptible  seed, 

*  Tcf  the  church  is  given  in  our  day  additional  and  valuable  in- 
struction. Book  of  Commandments,  Sec.  17,  9,  says:  "The  elders 
are  to  conduct  the  meetings  as  they  are  led  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  accord- 
ing to  the  commandments  and  revelations  of  God." 

Again,  Section  46-7 :  "And  the  Bishop  of  the  church,  and  unto 
such  as  God  shall  appoint  and  ordain  to  watch  over  the  church,  and 
to  be  elders  unto  the  church,  are  to  have  given  unto  them  to  discern 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  73 

but  of  the  incorruptible — "  by  the  word  of  God  which  liveth 
and  abideth  forever," — "  born  of  the  water  and  of  the  spirit," 
a  growth  and  experience  in  spiritual  things  was  necessary  to 
apostleship  or  leadership  in  addition  to  the  natural  talent 
which  God  has  given. 

Mistakes  in  learning  how  to  always  use  properly,  and  to 
edification,  even  the  gift  of  prophecy,  by  the  inexperienced, 
are  not  infrequent,  even  in  the  church.  "  But  as  he  that  is 
spiritual  judgeth  all  things,"  it  will  not  be  strange  if  those  who 
are  not  spiritual,  either  in  the  church  or  out,  should  be  led 
to  make  light  of  an  endeavor  to  express  the  mind  of  the 
spirit  in  language  or  manner  not  always  calculated  to  charm 
the  purely  sensual  ear.  If  the  correct  idea  is  expressed,  it 
should  satisfy  those  who  have  spiritual  discernment,  even 
though  the  message  of  inspiration  has  to  run  the  gauntlet  of 
human  verbiage  and  language  incomplete  from  the  stand- 
point of  euphony  or  worldly  wisdom.  It  is  not  the  language 
of  God,  but  the  speech  of  men,  "  and  the  spirit  of  the 
prophets  are  subject  to  the  prophets,"  or  should  be  in  the 
church  of  God,  their  agency  retained,  and  not  delivered 
over  to  the  manipulation  and  use  of  spiritual  forces  unknown, 
although  they  may  in  some  respects  transcend  even  the 
wisdom  of  the  agency  through  which  they  operate.  False 
spirits,  however,  without  exception,  will  be  found  upon  care- 
ful investigation  and  inquiry  to  be  anti-Christ,  anti-Chris- 
tian, opposed  to  his  methods,  his  claim  and  his  church,  the 
statements  and  claims  of  modern  spiritualism  and  other 
"spirit  powers,"  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding.  But, 

all  these  gifts  lest  there  should  be  any  among  you  professing  and  yet 
be  not  of  God."  •  ' 

And  again,  Sec.  50-6 :  "And  as  ye  are  appointed  to  the  head, 
the  spirits  shall  be  subject  to  you." 

And  in  Luke  x.  17,  we  read:  "And  the  seventy  returned 
again  with  joy,  saying,  Lord,  even  the  devils  are  subject  unto  us 
through  thy  name." 


74  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"ever  learning,  and  never  able  to  come  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  truth,"  will  men  and  women  by  the  blandishment, 
and  entertainment  of  worldly  wisdom,  and  error  gilded  by 
the  language  and  poetry  of  seductive  spirits  that  obtain 
"control"  of  human  agency,  deceive  the  ignorant,  unwary, 
disobedient,  and  lawless  seeker  after  "  signs  and  lying  won- 
ders," as  a  balm  for  the  lack  that  is  in  the  fashionable  church, 
or  the  world  to-day. 

"  Even  so  ye,  forasmuch  as  ye  are  zealous  of  spiritual 
gifts,  seek  that  ye  may  excel  to  the  edifying  of  the  church. 

"  Let  the  prophets  speak  two  or  three,  and  let  the  other 
judge. 

"  If  any  thing  be  revealed  to  another  that  sitteth  by,  let 
the  first  hold  his  peace. 

"  For  ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by  one,  that  all  may  learn, 
and  all  may  be  comforted. 

"  And  the  spirits  of  the  prophets  are  subject  to  the 
prophets. 

"  For  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of  peace, 
as  in  all  churches  of  the  saints."  (I  COR.  xii,  12,  and  29  to 

33-) 

"To  ANOTHER  DISCERNING  OF  SPIRITS." 

As  much  as  time  and  space  will  allow  has  already  been 
said  in  regard  to  the  necessity  for  this  gift  of  God  through 
the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  church  to-day  as  in  ancient  times. 

That  the  world  is  filled  with  men  and  women  who  prac- 
tice the  appearance  of  honesty  and  virtue  for  selfish,  base, 
and  wicked  purpose,  goes  without  saying.  That  spirits — 
if  there  are  any — or  any  such  thing  as  disembodied  intelli- 
gence or  spiritual  agency,  may  be  masquerading  behind 
human  forms  and  faces,  who  thus  become  at  once  both 
victim  and  tool  of  plausible  device  by  appeal  to  the  need  of 
the  human  soul,  through  play  upon  the  strongest  forces  of 
our  nature,  seems  not  unreasonable. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  75 

You  know  a  plausible,  sleek,  and  trusted  rascal  by 
acquaintance  only,  and  the  superior  wisdom  which  experi- 
ence with  them  alone  brings ;  but  you  need  not  have  the 
"delirium  tremens  "  in  order  to  know  the  evil  effects  of  the 
continued  use  of  alcohol.  No  more  need  you  spend  your 
time  or  money  in  running  after  "  wizards  that  peep  and 
mutter,"  or  "  spirit  "  manifestations  and  wonders,  to  find 
out  only  at  last  that  outside  of  the  law  of  God  there  is  no 
safety  nor  certainty.  "Man"  was  "made,"  not  as  a  de- 
scendant from  the  pollywog,  but  "a  little  lower  than  the 
angels,"  and  he  stands  between  the  upper  and  nether  world 
of  intelligences.  There  is  that  which  is  beneath  as  well  as 
that  which  is  above  him  ;  he  may  ascend  or  descend,  as  he 
may  elect,  for  his  agency  and  his  ^eing,  and  himself  and 
his  destiny,  are  and  will  be  eternally  his  own  ;  he  is,  as  was 
Lucifer,  a  son  of  God,  and  an  intelligent  product  of  the 
Almighty  and  Everlasting  Force,  and  learn  he  must,  in  the 
unfathomable  school  and  opportunity  of  God  that  the  way 
to  the  fulfillment  of  God's  design  concerning  him  is  the 
way  of  law — known,  fixed,  unalterable,  unchangeable,  eter- 
nal law.  He  may  become  more  than  man  ;  he  may  become 
an  angel,  and  God  knows  what  beyond.  He  may  become 
less  than  man ;  he  may — for  opportunity  will  be  offered — 
he  may  become,  by  his  own  will  or  volition,  a  devil.  It  is 
idle  and  foolish  in  view  of  the  stupendous  wickedness  that 
mortals  may  attain  to,  and  the  depths  to  which  men  descend 
even  in  this  short  life  and  opportunity,  to  believe  that  all 
is  solid  and  permanent  beneath  our  feet ;  that  go  which 
way  we  will  we  cannot  go  down  ;  that  though  in  a  possible 
future  life  we  may  or  shall  be  happier,  we  shall  never  be 
more  wretched  than  here  ;  that  though  capacity  and  oppor- 
tunity for  enjoyment  may  be  had  in  the  future,  yet  the 
capacity  and  limit  of  possible  suffering  has  been  reached, 
or  will  be  reached  in  this  life. 


76  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

Sin  is  a  transgression  of  law,  and  where  no  law  is 
(known),  sin  is  not  imputed,"  says  Paul.  That  is,  a  child 
may  place  its  hand  in  the  fire,  yet  no  moral  turpitude  attach 
to  the  act.  But  for  the  willful  and  persistent  doer  of  that 
which  is  known  to  be  wrong,  there  must  always  remain  the 
deeper  lesson,  lessons  which  will  reach  all  the  intelligent 
and  constantly  growing  forces  of  the  soul. 

It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  there  may  have 
been  "  angels  who  kept  not  their  first  estate,"  but  who  pro- 
posed to  indulge  a  lawless  ambition  or  pleasure,  and  see  if 
they  might  not  become  Gods  themselves  by  breaking  the 
law  decreed  by  the  Superior  Power,  and  making  a  law  for 
themselves ;  foolish  enough  to  think  or  hope  that  life  might 
be  continued  to  them  In  the  pursuit  of  their  own  will,  and 
learning  thus  through  the  pain  of  hell  and  discipline  of 
disobedience,  that  which  Paul  learned  in  the  gospel,  that 
"sin,  when  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth  death ;"  not  annihi- 
lation, not  a  blotting  out  of  an  existence  and  the  sum  of  an 
intelligence  accumulated  at  such  a  fearful  experience  and 
cost.  Oh  no  !  God  is  not  only  too  merciful,  but  too  wise 
to  permit  any  such  a  "  finale  "  to  his  work  of  creation.  But 
that  punishment  as  well  as  reward,  that  pain  as  well  as  hap- 
piness would  be  the  everlasting  attendant  of  the  soul,  the 
sure  and  abiding  testator  and  executor  of  God  and  of  his  law. 

If  there  are  angels,  why  not  devils  ?  What  do  mortals 
know  about  the  possibilities  wrapped  up  in  the  word  "  life  ?" 

We  read  in  the  book  of  Revelations  xiii,  11-14,  in  tne 
vision  of  the  Apostle  John  upon  the  isle  of  Patmos,  concern- 
ing things  that  were  to  come  to  pass  after  his  day,  that : 

"  And  I  beheld  another  beast  coming  up  out  of  the  earth  ; 
and  he  had  two  horns  like  a  lamb,  and  he  spake  as  a  dragon. 

"  And  he  exerciseth  all  the  power  of  the  first  beast  before 
him,  and  caueeth  the  earth  and  them  which  dwell  therein  to 
worship  the  first  beast,  whose  deadly  wound  was  healed. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  77 

"And  he  doeth  great  wonders,  so  that  he  raaketh  fire 
come  down  from  heaven  on  the  earth  in  the  sight  of  men, 

"And  deceiveth  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  by  the 
means  of  those  miracles  which  he  had  power  to  do  in  the 
sight  of  the  beast." 

Also*ln  Chapter  xvi,  13,  14. 

"And  I  saw  three  unclean  spirits  like  frogs  come  out  of 
the  mouth  of  the  dragon,  and  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  beast 
and  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  false  prophet. 

"  For  they  are  the  spirits  of  devils,  working  miracles, 
which  go  forth  unto  the  kings  of  the  earth  and  of  the  whole 
world" 

Already  kings  and  princes  have  been  and  are  entertaining 
and  investigating  the  phenomenon  and  miracle  working 
power  produced  or  exhibited  by  modern  spiritual  mediums 
in  Europe  and  all  over  the  civilized  world. 

The  newspapers  were  responsible  for  the  statement  that 
shortly  before  the  spiritualistic  expose,  made  by  Miss  Fox  or 
Mrs.  Margaret  Fox  Kane  in  eastern  cities,  that  Victoria, 
Queen  of  England,  in  conjunction  with  princes  and  lords, 
some  of  whose  names  were  given,  had  sent  or  were  about  to 
send  for  this  original  modern  spirit  and  wonder  worker,  in 
order  to  test  her  powers  of  mediumship,  and  satisfy  them- 
selves in  regard  to  the  claims  of  her  ability  to  communicate 
with  the  dead.* 

*Notwithstanding  her  "  expose"  the  writer  has  reason  to  believe 
this  woman  to  be  a  genuine  "  spirit  medium,"  though  utterly  lawless 
and  unreliable,  and  that  her  late  public  exposure  of  spiritualism  by 
the  snapping  of  her  toe  joints,  etc.,  is  more  of  an  evidence  of  spleen 
against  spiritualists,  and  a  lawless  and  reckless  desire  to  recuperate 
her  fallen  fortunes  and  to  secure  public  recognition  in  a  new  "role" 
than  an  evidence  that  she  is  able  to  prove  modern  spiritualism  to  be 
in  toto  the  work  of  human  tricksters. 

There  is  evidence,  however,  that  a  host  of  gerfuine  "mediums  "  do 
alternate  with  spirit  or  supernatural  "control,"  and  when  '-conditions" 


78  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

Why  may  there  not  be  angels  "who  kept  not  their 
first  estate  "  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  the  wondrous  gift 
of  the  bodily  power  possessed  by  mortals  through  which  to 
express  themselves,  striving  to  and  obtaining  possession 
and  control  of  physical  organisms  through  which  and  by 
which  they  may  do  only  that  which  mortals  do  ?  only  in  a 
far  more  intelligent,  though  subtle  and  crafty  sense,  and  that 
is  to  play  their  tricks  of  spiritual  ledgerdemain,  embellished 
by  poetry  such  as  only  fallen  angels  can  invent  upon  the 
spur  and  need  of  the  moment,  of  art,  of  song,  of  music,  of 
preaching,  quotation  of  scripture  or  even  of  prayer  ?  and  all 
of  the  needs  of  the  human  soul  thus  covertly  appealed  to 
under  guise,  to  satisfy  a  generation  of  religiously  disap- 
pointed, sign,  wonder,  or  evidence-seekers  concerning  the 
great  mysteries  that  envelop  the  life  of  humanity.  The 
extremity  of  fierceness  of  this  device  to  possess  a  body  was 
expressed  in  the  Saviour's  time  in  the  incident  recorded  by 
Matthew,  8th  Chapter,  28-32  : 

"And  when  he  was  come  to  the  other  side  into  the 
country  of  the  Gergesenes,  there  met  Him  two  possessed 
with  devils,  coming  out  of  the  tombs,  exceeding  fierce,  so 
that  no  man  might  pass  by  that  way. 

"And,  behold,  they  cried  out,  saying,  What  have  we  to 
do  with  thee,  Jesus,  thou  Son  of  God?  art  thou  come  hither 
to  torment  us  before  the  time  ? 

are  not  "favorable,"  show  exceedingly  clever  work  as  prestidigitators 
by  entertaining  the  already  half-blinded  individual,  who  seeking,  not 
necessarily  or  exactly  after  truth  so  much  as  for  something  which  was 
before  impressed  by  want  upon  a  hungry  heart,  and  now  by  the  aid 
of  "  favorable  conditions  "  already  half  photographed  upon  the  brain. 
The  finishing  wo  rk  of  producing  a  conviction  in  a  mind  that  either  is 
already  to  believe  that  it  may  be  so,  or  filled  with  an  intense  desire 
that  it  be  or  is  so,  makes  the  work  of  conversion  by  the  human  or 
spirit  prestidigitator  a  comparatively  easy  matter,  as  their  rapidly 
increasing  numbers  attest. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  79 

"And  there  was  a  good  way  off  from  them  an  herd  of 
many  swine  feeding. 

"  So  the  devil  besought  him,  saying,  If  thou  cast  us  out, 
suffer  us  to  go  away  into  the  herd  of  swine. 

"And  he  said  unto  them,  Go.  And  when  they  were 
come  out,  they  went  into  the  herd  of  swine  :  and  behold, 
the  whole  herd  of  swine  ran  violently  down  a  steep  place 
into  the  sea,  and  perished  in  the  waters. 

"  And  they  that  kept  them  fled,  and  went  their  ways  into 
the  city,  and  told  every  thing,  and  what  was  befallen  to  the 
possessed  of  the  devils." 

The  test  of  all  these  matters  with  us  is,  that  in  sober 
interview  and  intelligent  inquiry,  these  spirits  will  be 
found  opposed  to  the  claim  of  the  Messiahship  of 
Christ,  and  in  conformity  to  the  opinions  of  modern 
atheism  and  skepticism  upon  these  subjects.  To  Jesus 
Christ,  in  His  presence  or  the  presence  of  an  authorized 
servant  of  His  alone,  are  these  spirits  liable  to  betray  their 
true  character?  Outside  of  these  and  in  the  presence  of 
those  who  are  strangers  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  and 
the  power  of  the  spirit  of  truth,  they  are  liable  to  profess 
great  respect,  admiration  and  even  love  for  His  name ;  His 
power,  and  the  presence  of  the  spirit  which  He  promised  to 
the  true  disciple,  the  power  and  the  gift  of  "  discerning  of 
spirits"  alone  they  fear;  His  authority  as  the  one  chosen 
representative  of  God  is  always  denied ;  His  law,  His  gov- 
ernment or  His  kingdom  is  either  unknown  to  or  opposed 
by  them  ;  He  is  a  "medium,"  a  "reformer,"  a  "  moralist," 
a  "  profound  religious  philosopher,"  but  never  the  Christ ; 


8o  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

He  is  a  "  Saviour,"  but  only  in  the  sense  that  all  good  men 
are,  a  "  Son  of  God  "  as  all  are,  and  no  more. 

We  read,  ACTS  xix,  13-20  : 

"Then  certain  of  the  vagabond  Jews,  exorcists,  took 
upon  them  to  call  over  them  which  had  evil  spirits  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  saying,  We  adjure  you  by  Jesus 
whom  Paul  preacheth. 

"  And  there  were  seven  sons  of  one  Sceva,  a  Jew,  and 
chief  of  the  priests,  which  did  so. 

"  And  the  evil  spirit  answered  and  said,  Jesus  I  know, 
and  Paul  I  know ;  but  who  are  ye  ? 

"And  the  man  in  whom  the  evil  spirit  was  leaped  on 
them,  and  overcame  them,  and  prevailed  against  them,  so 
that  they  fled  out  of  that  house  naked  and  wounded. 

"  And  this  was  known  to  all  the  Jews  and  Greeks  also 
dwelling  at  Ephesus ;  and  fear  fell  on  them  all,  and  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  was  magnified. 

"  And  many  that  believed  came,  and  confessed,  and 
shewed  their  deeds. 

"Many  of  them  also  which  used  curious  arts  brought 
their  books  together,  and  burned  them  before  all  men  :  and 
they  counted  the  price  of  them,  and  found  it  fifty  thousand 
pieces  of  silver. 

"So  mightily  grew  the  word  of  God  and  prevailed." 

Infidelity,  or  agnosticism,  may  not  be  anti- Christ ;  an  infi- 
del or  atheist  or  unbeliever  in  any  thing  may  foolishly,  or 
with  vain  oath,  profane  or  make  light  of  the  name  of  a  God 
or  a  Christ  whom  they  never  knew  save  by  the  reputation 
which  the  creeds  have  furnished  of  them.  But  the  tre- 
mendous danger  that  besets  the  honest  seeker  after  truth 
in .  these  last  days — the  creed-disgusted,  yet  devout  and 
religiously  hungry — is  that  blinded  by  the  absurdities  of 
"Christian  "  mythology,  and  with  delineation  and  exposition 
of  the  devils  of  Milton  or  of  Dante  in  our  minds ;  the  real 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  81 

and  actual  devils — being  in  truth,  as  much  unlike  the  creations 
of  uninspired  men  as  are  their  Gods — finding  the  field  clear 
for  operation  and  from  suspicion  of  their  real  presence,  are 
thus  enabled  by  the  ignorance  that  is  in  the  world,  and  in 
the  churches  organized  and  carried  on  by  men  and  popular 
method — of  spiritual  power  of  any  kind — they  ply  their  ne- 
farious, wonder-working,  and  sign-producing  phenomena — 
disciples  of  "  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,"  the 
mysterious  operations  of  forces  of  the  air  as  exhibited  in 
"metaphysics,"  mesmerism,  or  trance;  table  tipping,  slate 
writing,  "materialization,"  "mind  reading"  pschycometry, 
etc.,  etc. 

Whatever  scientific  and  lawful  investigation  may  develop 
of  real,  lasting,  and  substantial  benefit  to  man  in  the  lawful 
use  of  these  forces  in  the  future  we  do  not  propose  to  make 
war  against ;  but  prool  that  they  are  the  attempts  of  the 
spirits  of  dead  men,  women  or  children  ONLY  who  have 
come  back  to  friends  and  place  where  they  dwelt  in  the 
flesh,  to  communicate  in  any  way  or  manner  they  can,  is  to 
the  mind,  and  in  the  experience  of  the  writer,  wanting. 

The  spirits  of  dead  men  are  to  the  modern  spiritualist  the 
highest  wisdom,  goodness  or  authority  communicating  with 
mankind,  the  highest  intelligence  accessible  to  mortals 
struggling  for  light  in  all  this  vast  and  wondrous  universe. 
God,  angels  or  seraphim,  are  all  reduced  to  the  "  advanced  " 
stage  that  mortals  have  attained  through  a  few  years'  expe- 
rience in  "  spirit  life." 

We  are  aware  of  the  claim  made  that  the  "Bible  is  the  corner- 
stone of  spiritualism,"  from  the  fact  that  it  is  stated  that 
Samuel,  a  dead  prophet  of  God,  and  a  good  man,  appeared 
to  Saul,  through  the  agency  of  the  woman,  or  "  medium  " 
of  Endor,  a  statement  which  a  critical  analysis,  however, 
will  not  warrant  us  in  accepting.  Saul,  a  transgressor  of 
the  law  of  the  Lord,  departing  from  the  living  God,  deprived 


82  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

of  counsel  through  the  legal  and  appointed  method,  hungry 
for  information,  having  no  doubt  a  historical  or  practical 
experience  with  the  powers  that  have  always  opposed  the 
kingdom  and  government  of  God,  notwithstanding  his  for- 
mer decree,  made  in  a  better  hour  and  time,  sought  coun- 
sel that  he  knew  that  earth  could  not  give.  With  his  face 
to  the  earth  he  "  perceived,"  by  the  medium's  description,  as 
in  modern  times,  "that  it  was  Samuel."  Not  that  Samuel 
was  necessarily  there,  or  the  "  mantle  "  which  he  wore  in 
earth  life,  but  a  "  materialization,"  through  the  mind  of  the 
medium  possibly,  by  the  chemistry  of  forces  known  to  the 
"  Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air  "  or  his  agents. 

But  did  not  Moses  and  Elias  come  back  to  earth?  Yes, 
with  an  authoritative  message  and  commission  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  kingdom  and  government  of  God.  They  came 
in  the  interests  of,  acknowledged  the  work  and  authority, 
and  were  associates  with  Jesus  Christ ;  knew,  and  pro- 
claimed his  Messiahship  and  his  government  that  is  to  be ; 
they  were  not  antichrist. 

The  revelations  of  modern  spiritualism  betray  ignorance, 
or  willful  perversion  of  the  intellectual,  moral,  or  rational 
and  consistent  interpretation  of  the  prophecies  of  the  old, 
or  the  promises  of  the  New  Testament  scriptures. 

If  Immanuel  Swedenborg  ever  saw  Jesus  Christ,  his  reve- 
lations do  not  show  it.  On  the  contrary  his  voluminous 
interpretations  show  that  he  has  as  little  acquaintance  with 
the  Christ  of  the  prophets  and  of  the  New  Testament  scrip- 
tures as  other  mediums  of  less  doubtful  standing  in  the 
orthodox  world,  and  the  result  is  that  doubt  and  mysticism 
is  added  to  instead  of  being  taken  from  the  Bible,  the 
mission,  and  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"  God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spake 
in  time  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets."  (HEB.  i :  i .) 

That's  more  ways  than  one.     "But  the  manifestation  of 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTA  TIONS,  83 

the  spirit  "  and  the  revelation  of  God  to  men  "  is  given  to 
profit  withal"  and  placed  under  the  safeguard  of  law  and  rule. 

"  Hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son, 
whom  he  hath  appointed  heir  of  all  things,  by  whom  also  he 
made  the  worlds."  (HEB  i :  2.) 

And  as  has  been  shown,  the  Saviour  did  not  go  outside 
and  beyond  the  rule  of  the  Old  Testament  or  of  God's  way  of 
communication  to  men,  forlsaiah  says,  iQth  chapter,  3d  verse  : 

"And  the  spirit  of  Egypt  shall  fail  in  the  midst  thereof; 
and  I  will  destroy  the  counsel  thereof;  and  they  shall  seek 
to  the  idols,  and  to  the  charmers,  and  to  them  that  have 
familiar  spirits,  and  to  the  wizards." 

And  again : 

"  And  when  they  shall  say  unto  you,  Seek  unto  them  that 
have  familiar  spirits,  and  unto  wizards  that  peep  and  that 
mutter ;  should  not  a  people  seek  unto  their  God  ?  for  the 
living  to  the  dead."  "To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony ;  if 
they  speak  not  according  to  this  word  \  it  is  because  there  is 
no  light  in  them."  (!SA.  viii,  19  120.) 

We  have  got  this  to  learn  that  in  entering  into  the  realm 
of  spirit  or  of  dealing  with  spirit  intelligence  we  are  as  much, 
nay  more  liable  to  be  deceived  than  with  embodied  intel- 
ligences with  whom  we  are  acquainted,  and  without  law  and 
rule  to  govern,  the  chances  for  counterfeiting  and  deception 
are  increased,  as,  unguided  or  uncontrolled  save  by  desire, 
or  hunger,  or  need  of  information  we  fall  into  the  clutches 
of  a  conglomerate  mass  of  "familiar  spirits  "  who  are  full  as 
likely  to  minister  to  your  wants  rather  than  to  supply  your 
real  and  lasting  need. 

"To  ANOTHER  DIVERS  KINDS  OF  TONGUES;   TO    ANOTHER 

THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  TONGUES: 

"  But  all  these  worketh  that  one  and  the  selfsame  Spirit, 
dividing  to  every  man  severally  as  he  will. 


84  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  For  as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members,  and  all 
the  members  of  that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one  body  : 
so  also  is  Christ. 

"  For  by  one  Spirit  are  we  all  baptized  into  one  body, 
whether  we  be  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether  we  be  bond  or  free  ; 
and  have  been  all  made  to  drink  into  one  Spirit. 

"For  the  body  is  not  one  member,  but  many."  (i  COR. 
xii.  10 :  14.) 

The  gift  of  "  tongues  "  and  the  gift  to  interpret  the  same 
belongs  to  the  body  or  church  of  Jesus  Christ,  wherever  it 
exists  and  in  all  ages.  The  writer  having  felt  and  witnessed 
its  power  in  instances  most  numerous,  he  has  heard  men 
and  women,  with  whom  he  is  in  personal  acquaintance  and 
friendship,  unlearned  and  unlettered,  with  poor  knowledge 
of  even  acceptable  English,  speak  in  language  unknown,  or 
other  than  our  common  English,  and  witnessed  to  by  dis- 
interested Hebrew  and  Greek  scholars,  as  on  Pentecost  day 
"concerning  the  wonderful  works  of  God." 

"And  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come,  they  were 
all  with  one  accord  in  one  place. 

"And  suddenly  there  came  a  sound  from  heaven  as  of  a 
rushing  mighty  wind,  and  it  rilled  all  the  house  where  they 
were  sitting. 

"And  there  appeared  unto  them  cloven  tongues  like  as  of 
fire,  and  it  sat  upon  each  of  them. 

"And  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  began  to 
speak  with  other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gave  them  utterance. 

"And  there  were  dwelling  at  Jerusalem  Jews,  devout  men, 
out  of  every  nation  under  heaven. 

"  Now  when  this  was  noised  abroad,  the  multitude  came 
together,  and  were  confounded,  because  that  every  man 
heard  them  speak  in  his  own  language. 

"And  they  were  all  amazed  and  marvelled,  saying  to  one 
another,  Behold,  are  not  all  these  which  speak  Galilaeans  ? 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATION'S.  85 

"And  how  hear  we  every  man  in  our  own  tongue,  wherein 
we  were  born  ? 

"  Parthians,  and  Medes,  and  Elamites,  and  the  dwellers 
in  Mesopotamia,  and  in  Judaea,  and  Cappadocia,  in  Pontus, 
and  Asia, 

"  Phrygia,  and  Pamphylia,  in  Egypt,  and  in  the  parts  of 
Libya  about  Cyrene,  and  strangers  of  Rome,  Jews  and 
proselytes, 

"Cretes  and  Arabians,  we  do  hear  them  speak  in  our 
tongues  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 

"And  they  were  all  amazed,  and  were  in  doubt,  saying  one 
to  another,  What  meaneth  this? 

"Others  mocking  said,  These  men  are  full  of  new  wine. 

"  But  Peter  standing  up  with  the  eleven,  lifted  up  his 
voice,  and  said  unto  them,  Ye  men  of  Judaea,  and  all  ye  that 
dwell  at  Jerusalem,  be  this  known  unto  you,  and  hearken 
unto  my  words  : 

"  For  these  are  not  drunken,  as  ye  suppose,  seeing  it  is 
but  the  third  hour  of  the  day. 

"  But  this  is  that  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet  Joel ; 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  saith  God,  I 
will  pour  out  of  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh  :  and  your  sons  and 
your  daughters  shall  prophesy,  and  your  men  shall  see 
visions,  and  your  old  men  shall  dream  dreams  : 

"And  on  my  servants  and  on  my  handmaidens  I  will  pour 
out  in  those  days  of  my  Spirit ;  and  they  shall  prophesy : 

"And  I  will  shew  wonders  in  heaven  above,  and  signs  in 
the  earth  beneath ;  blood,  and  fire,  and  vapour  of  smoke  : 

"  The  sun  shall  be  turned  into  darkness,  and  the  moon 
into  blood,  before  that  great  and  notable  day  of  the  Lord  come : 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  whosoever  shall  call  on 
the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved. 

"  Therefore  being  by  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and 
having  received  of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 


86  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

he  hath  shed  forth  this,  which  ye  now  see  and  hear."  (Acxs 
ii,  i  to  21  133.) 

Are  we  not  living  nearer  the  "last  days,"  spoken  of  by 
Joel  and  Peter — if  indeed,  the  "signs  of  the  times"  do  not 
show  that  we  are  already  in  the  midst  of  them — than  were 
they  ?  If  we  are  really,  reasonably,  scripturally,  and  in  fact, 
and  in  truth,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  God,  through 
adoption,  by  obedience  to  His  law  and  seal  of  the  spirit  of 
truth.  If  God  is  "unchangeable,"  and  "no  respecter  of 
persons" — if  we  can,  or  expect  to  defend  our  claim  to  pos- 
session of  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  what  law  or  rule  are  we 
justified  in  saying  that  "these  things  are  done  away  and  no 
longer  needed?" 

What  evidence  have  we  as  professed  believers  in  Jesus 
Christ  that  he  is  not 

"A  dead  fact,  stranded  on  the  shore 
Of  the  oblivious  years," 

if  He  does  not  communicate  with  his  church — if  He  has  one — 
as  in  days  of  old,  not  only  to  "edify"  but  to  "profit,"  not 
only  through  the  gift  of  tongues,  and  interpretations,  proph- 
ecy, healing,  etc.,  but  the  discerning  of  spiritual  powers,  thus 
throwing  around  the  true  disciple  a  safeguard  and  protec- 
tion against  every  intelligence,  or  sign  that  opposes  itself  to 
God  and  the  true  interests  of  the  human  soul.  For  has  not 
the  Saviour,  according  to  Matt,  vii,  13  :  29  forewarned  us 
by  saying : 

"  Enter  ye  in  at  the  strait  gate  :  for  wide  is  the  gate,  and 
broad  is  the  way,  that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many 
there  be  which  go  in  thereat : 

"Because  strait  is  the  gate,  and  narrow  is  the  way,  which 
leadeth  unto  life,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it. 

"  Beware  of  false  prophets,  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's 
clothing,  but  inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  87 

"Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits.  Do  men  gather 
grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles  ? 

"  Even  so  every  good  tree  bringeth  forth  good  fruit ;  but 
a  corrupt  tree  bringeth  forth  evil  fruit. 

"  A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  neither  can  a 
corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit. 

"Every  tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  is  hewn 
down,  and  cast  into  the  fire. 

"Wherefore  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them. 

"Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  but  he  that  doeth  the 
will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

"Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  have  we 
not  prophesied  in  thy  name  ?  and  in  thy  name  have  cast  out 
devils  ?  and  in  thy  name  done  many  wonderful  works  ? 

"And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you  : 
depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity. 

"  Therefore  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and 
doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which  built 
his  house  upon  a  rock  : 

"And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the 
winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house ;  and  it  fell  not :  for 
it  was  founded  upon  a  rock. 

"And  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and 
doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  which 
built  his  house  upon  the  sand  : 

"  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  .the 
winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell :  and  great 
was  the  fall  of  it. 

"And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Jesus  had  ended  these  say- 
ings, the  people  were  astonished  at  his  doctrine  : 

"  For  he  taught  them  as  one  having  authority,  and  not  as 
the  scribes." 

And  reader,  do  not  become  frightened  or  fearful  if  this  cry, 


88  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

11  Beware  of  false  prophets,"  should  be  raised  by  some  respect- 
able "Pharisee,"  who  does  not  believe  in  any  kind  of  prophets 
only  dead  ones,  but  with  little  heed,  or  reference  to  "these 
sayings  "  of  Christ,  cry,  Lord,  Lord,  with  no  expectation  of 
a  consistent,  clear  or  intelligent  answer.  But  remembering 
His  word  and  instructions,  we  need  not  be  deceived,  for 
"by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  and  if  any  man  is  to 
be  listened  to  it  is  not  the  one  who  denies  the  word  of  God, 
or  the  signs  of  the  presence  of  the  spirit  of  truth. 

Upon  the  other  hand  remember  that 

"Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  have  we 
not  prophesied  in  thy  name  ?  and  in  thy  name  have  cast  out 
devils?  and  in  thy  name  done  many  wonderful  works? 
»    "And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you  :* 
depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity." 

Jesus  "knew  what  was  in  men,"  and  was  not  ignorant  of 
them,  or  of  devils.  But  to  be  able  to  prophesy  or  even 
profess  to  cast  out  devils  in  His  name,  or  in  any  other  way, 
will  not  ensure  the  salvation  He  came  to  bring,  but  "this  is 
life  eternal,  to  know  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  thoij  hast  sent,"  and  "if  any  man  will  do,"  "he 
shall  know."  Failing  to  do,  or  even  to  "continue  in  well 
doing"  after  having  known  the  way,  we  shall  fail  to  "reap" 
the  reward,  or  receive  the  gift  of  life  as  it  is  in  Christ  only. 

Paul  in  his  second  letter  to  Thessalonians  2d  chapter, 
1-13,  says: 

"  Now  we  beseech  you,  brethern,  by  the  coming  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  our  gathering  together  unto  him,  - 

"  That  ye  be  not  soon  shaken  in  mind,  or  be  troubled, 
neither  by  spirit,  nor  by  word,  nor  by  letter  as  from  us,  as 
that  the  day  of  Christ  is  at  hand. 

"  Let  no  man  deceive  you  by  any  means :  for  that  day 

*  Another,  and  we  believe  more  correct  version  says  :  "  You  never 
knew  me.'* 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  89 

shall  not  come,  except  there  come  a  falling  away  first,  and 
that  man  of  sin  be  revealed,  the  son  of  perdition  ; 

"  Who  opposeth  and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is 
called  God,  or  that  is  worshipped ;  so  that  he  as  God  sitteth 
in  the  temple  of  God,  shewing  himself  that  he  is  God. 

"  Remember  ye  not,  that,  when  I  was  yet  with  you,  I  told 
you  these  things  ? 

"  And  now'  ye  know  what  withholdeth  that  he  might  be 
revealed  in  his  time. 

"  For  the  mystery  of  iniquity  doth  already  work  :  only  he 
who  now  letteth  will  let,  until  he  be  taken  out  of  the  way. 

"  And  then  shall  that  Wicked  be  revealed,  whom  the 
Lord  shall  consume  with  the  spirit  of  his  mouth,  and  shall 
destroy  with  the  brightness  of  his  coming.* 

"  Even  him,  whose  coming  is  after  the  working  of  Satan 
with  all  power  and  signs  and  lying  wonders, 

*  "  Now  the  Spirit  speaketh  expressly,  that  in  the  latter  times  some 
shall  depart  from  the  faith,  giving  heed  to  seducing  spirits,  and  doc- 
trines of  devils; 

"  Speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy;  having* their  conscience  seared  with 
a  hot  iron.; 

"  Forbidding  to  marry,  and  commanding  to  abstain  from  meats, 
which  God  hath  created  to  be  received  with  thanksgiving  of  them 
which  believe  and  know  the  truth."  (I  TIM.  iv.  1-3.) 

This  prophecy  may  have  had  partial  fulfillment  in  the  history  of 
Popery,  but  partially  only.  The  chronology  is,  "  in  the  latter  times" 
the  people  were  to  be  apostates  from  the  faith.  The  Romish  church, 
as  an  organization,  never  had  it  as  referred  to  by  Paul.  The  fulfill- 
ment of  this  part  of  the  prophecy  can  only,  and  rationally,  be  laid  at 
the  door  of  Brigham  Young  and  apostate  followers. — "Doctrines  of 
devils,"  polygamy,  Adam  God  theory,  "speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy," — 
witness  their  juggling  and  equivocation,  as  well  as  the  oath  disclo- 
sures made  by  some  of  them  before  the  officers  of  the  U.  S.  govern- 
ment in  regard  to  trials  for  the  crime  of  polygamy.  "  Having  their 
conscience  seared  as  with  a  hot  iron."  See  Mountain  Meadow  mas- 
sacre, etc. 


go  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

"  And  with  all  deceivableness  of  unrighteousness  in  them 
that  perish  ;  because  they  received  not  the  love  of  the  truth, 
that  they  might  be  saved. 

"  And  for  this  cause  God  shall  send  them  strong  delusion, 
that  they  should  believe  a  lie  : 

"  That  they  all  might  be  damned  who  believed  not  the 
truth,  but  had  pleasure  in  unrighteousness. 

"  But  we  are  bound  to  give  thanks  alway  to  God  for  you, 
brethren  beloved  of  the  Lord,  because  God  hath  from  the 
beginning  chosen  you  to  salvation  through  sanctification  of 
the  spirit  and  belief  of  the  truth." 

What  is  the  use  of  crying  Lord,  Lord,  while  we  refuse  to 
believe  the  truth,  the  word,  and  instead  of  trying  to  know 
and  maintain  the  righteousness  which  is  "  revealed  "  alone 
to  the  obedient  believer,  or  "  doer  of  the  word,"  insist  as 
did  the  ancient  Pharisees,  whom  Jesus  and  Paul  rebuked, 
upon  "  going  about  to  establish  w  our  "  own  righteousness," 
and  refusing  " to  submit"  ourselves  "to  the  righteousness 
of  God." 

"And  for  this  cause  "  shall  and  has  there  been  sent,  or 
permitted  to  be  sent,  the  strong  delusions  of  modern  times, 
•"  even  after  the  workings  of  Satan,  with  all  power  and  signs 
and  lying  wonders." 

"  And  the  Pharisees  came  forth,  and  began  to  question 
with  him,  seeking  of  him  a  sign  from  heaven,  tempting  him. 

'/'  And  he  sighed  deeply  in  his  spirit,  and  saith,  Why  doth 
this  generation  seek  after  a  sign?  verily  I  say  unto  you, 
There  shall  no  sign  be  given  unto  this  generation."  (MARK 
viii :  11-12.) 

And  again  (MATT,  xvi,  i  :  14)  : 

"  The  Pharisees  also  the  Sadducees  came,  and  tempting 
desired  him  that  he  would  shew  them  a  sign  from  heaven. 

"  He  answered  and  said  unto  them,  When  it  is  evening, 
ye  say,  It  will  be  fair  weather  :  for  the  sky  is  red. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  91 

"  And  in  the  morning,  It  will  be  foul  weather  to-day : 
for  the  sky  is  red  and  lowring.  O  ye  hypocrites,  ye  can 
discern  the  face  of  the  sky ;  but  can  ye  not  discern  the  signs 
of  the  times  ? 

"  A  wicked  and  adulterous  generation  seeketh  after  a 
sign ;  and  there  shall  no  sign  be  given  unto  it,  but  the  sign 
of  the  prophet  Jonas.  And  he  left  them,  and  departed." 

The  sign  of  "Jonas  "  was  a  type  of  His  death,  burial  and 
resurrection,  and,  "  according  to  the  scriptures "  of  the 
prophets,  which,  while  reading  every  Sabbath,  as  does  the 
modern  Pharisee,  they  neither  understood,  believed  01 
taught.  And  we  shall  be  soon  prepared,  if  we  are  not 
already,  to  acknowledge  a  man  as  being  "  orthodox  "  who 
denies  not  only  the  truth  of  the  "  fish  story,"  but  of  the 
literal  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  well  as  the  existence 
of  any  othep  lawful "  sign  "  promised  to  the  true  believer. 

Paul  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost  prophesies 
thus: 

"This  know  also,  that  in  the /#.$•/  days  perilous  times  shall 
come. 

"  For  men  shall  be  lovers  of  their  own  selves,  covetous, 
boasters,  proud,  blasphemers,  disobedient  to  parents, 
unthankful,  unholy, 

"  Without  natural  affection,  trucebreakers,  false  accuser?,  - 
incontinent,  fierce,  despisers  of  those  that  are  good, 

"  Traitors,  heady,  highminded,  lovers  of  pleasures  more 
than  lovers  of  God  ; 

"  Having  a  form  of  godliness,  but  denying  the  power 
thereof :  from  such  turn  away."  (II  TIM.  iii,  i  :$.) 

Are  we  living  in  the  last  days  ?  Did  Paul  tell  the  truth 
or  was  he  mistaken,  and  are  the  theologians  right  when  they 
tell  us  that  the  world  is  growing  wiser  in  the  things  of  God, 
and  better?  Are  we  "  lovers  of  pleasures  more  than  lovers  of 
God?"  and  is  the  tendency  of  churches  toward  entertain- 


92  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

merit,  instead  of  spiritual,  profitable  and  edifying  instruction 
in  true  Godliness?  Are  the  church  "trustees"  and  even 
the  minister,  vying  with  the  theatrical  manager  in  the 
invention  and  procuring  of  "  attractions,"  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  "  saving  "  by  gospel  method,  but  of  keeping  even  in 
the  race  for  popularity  and  filling  the  church  coffer  ?  Does 
the  fashionable,  popular  church  accept  or  deny  "  THE  " 
form  of  Godliness,  as  well  as  the  power  thereof,  as  mani- 
fested in  the  Doctrine  of  Christ,  and  the  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Comforter  which  He  promised  to  the  believer? 

Let  popular,  gilded  and  apostate  Babylon  and  her  harlot 
daughters  answer  these  questions,  for  answer  they  must, 
either  here  or  at  the  bar  of  Him,  whose  "word  sliall judge  " 
us  "  in  the  last  day." 

Remember,  again  remember,  oh,  reader,  that  it  is  the 
word  interpreted  by  the  spirit  which  comes  through  obedi- 
ence to  law,  and  not  a  "  sign  "  or  a  "wonder  "  though  it  be 
but  a  fascinating  imitation  or  dangerous  counterfeit  of  some 
of  the  gospel  signs  which  were  to  follow  the  believer  in  the 
word  as  taught  by  the  preacher  whom  God  has  sent,  which 
is  to  confirm  you  by  the  spirit  of  truth  as  a  sure  and  safe 
witness  that  we  are  "  built  upon  a  rock  "  that  the  storms  of 
time,  the  persecutions  of  men  or  the  deceptive  power  of 
demons  cannot  overthrow,  and  which  is  to  finally  judge 
you,  and  to  be  the  test  of  your  building  in  this  life. 

Remember,  and  do  not  forget  the  warning  which  Jesus 
gave,  and  which  we  repeat,  lest  you  do  forget  and  are  led 
into  deception,  that  "  many  will  say  unto  me  in  that  day  — 
the  judgment  day — Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in 
thy  name  ?  and  in  thy  name  have  cast  out  devils  ?  and  in 
thy  name  done  many  wonderful  works? "  And  yet  are 
deceiving  and  being  deceived  through  "  the  workings  of 
Satan,  who  with  all  power,  and  signs,  and  lying  wonders, 
and  with  all  manner  of  deceivableness,"  is  attracting  the 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  93 

attention  of  a  faithless  and  unspiritual  world  away  from  the 
angel- restored  gospel  in  our  day. 

"  And  for  this  cause  "  shall  God  send  them  strong  delu- 
sions. Why?  because  they  are  not  willing  to  believe  the 
truth,  when  it  calls  upon  men  to  forsake  their  sins,  not  only 
of  lust  and  immorality,  but  of  unbelief  in  the  word  of  him 
they  constantly  and  with  vain  and  useless  liturgical  repetition 
call  Lord,  Lord. 

"  What's  the  use  of  a  man's  repenting  of  his  sins,  of  aban- 
doning unholy  thoughts,  or  carnal  desires  and  fleshy  lusts,  if 
they  do  not  essentially  '  war  against  the  '  human  '  soul ' 
and  its  eternal  interests,  but  only  serve  the  purposes  of  edu- 
cation and  of  '  advancement '  in  knowledge,  instead  of 
retarding  his  true  and  upward  growth?"  says  some  '  liberal ' 
in  religious  matters. 

"  What's  the  use  of  being  obedient  to  any  law  in  spiritual 
matters,  seeing  things  are  changed  and  the  gift  of  God,  or 
something  so  near  like  it  which  will  do  just  as  well,  '  can  be 
purchased  with  money,'  and  without  the  trouble  of  self 
denial?" 

"  What's  the  use  or  sense  of  trying  to  believe  in  a  God 
whom  Ingersoll  says  is  a  fiend,  or  the  priests  say  is  dead,  or 
at  least  dumb  ?  What's  the  use  of  repenting,  when  evil  is 
only  a  '  lesser  good  ? '  What  if  Moses  or  Christ  did  say 
'  thou  shalt  not,'  they  were  only  men,  and  we'll  please  our- 
selves. The  '  hell '  we  were  taught  to  believe  in,  we  know 
now  to  be  a  cruel  and  unreasonable  superstition  and  myth. 
The  gods  we  do  not  know,  and  we  know  as-  much  about 
them  as  anybody,  as  the  changing  creeds  show.  Satan  is 
not,  and  all  the  devils  there  are,  are  in  men.  Hell  is 
nowhere,  and  heaven  everywhere,  and  it  is  easier  to  SLIDE 
down  there,  than  to  toil  up  the  old-fogy,  hard,  thorny,  straight^ 
narrow,  contracted  way. 

"What's  the  use  of  troubling  ourselves  about  any  theory, 


94  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

when  our  learned  preacher  says  that  it  makes  but  little  dif- 
ference what  we  believe,  only  so  we  are  '  honest?'  And 
doesn't  even  Rev  Joseph  Cook  and  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott 
know,  when  they  say  that  '  millions  of  heathen  have  entered 
into  life  eternal  without  any  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ.'  " 

"What's  '  the  use  of  being  baptized,  if  it's  not  a  saving 
ordinance. '?'  '  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  '  don't  mean 
water,  and  the  preacher  ought  to  know,  for  we  pay  him 
well  to  tell  us  about  these  things.  We  havn't  time  to  read 
it  ourselves,  and  wouldn't  know  anything  much  about  if  we 
did,  and  as  for  the  doctrine  of  the  laying  on  of  hands,  and 
the  literal  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  of  eternal  judgment, 
we  never  heard  much  about  them,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
we  don't  believe  in  anything  very  substantial  but  the  dollar 
that's  now  crowned  king,  and  moves  everything  in  this  world." 

"  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,"  says  he,  "  by  the  way, 
I  was  a  little  interested  in  a  'seance,'  which,  in  company 
with  my  neighbor,  who  owns  the  pew  next  to  mine  in  'Dr.' 
Blank's  church  up  on  Vanderbilt  avenue,  arid  who,  by  the 
way,  is  a  '  liberal '  in  his  views,  I  attended  the  other  even- 
ing. '  The  slate  writing '  and  '  mind  reading  '  experiments, 
I  confess,  notwithstanding  the  '  spiritualistic  expose  '  and 
'  medium  frauds  '  that  I  had  read  about  rather  startled  me, 
and  Brown  says  he  knows  there's  something  in  it  besides 
ledgerdemain,  and  swears  that  there's  intelligence  in  the 
'  raps  '  even.  In  fact  I  really  got  so  interested  that  I  had 
to  tell  my  wife  about  where  I  had  been.  But  she  said  it 
was  all  of  the  devil,  and  that  if  I  was  dissatisfied  with  '  Dr.' 
Blank's  frozen  erudition  and  poetic  descriptions  of  nothing, 
that  I  had  better  go  where  she  had  been  visiting,  down  to 
the  '  faith  cure  '  meetings,  as  she  thought  they  had  more 
life  there,  and  though  she  felt  ashamed  to  have  one  of  Dr. 
Blank's  congregation  to  be  seen  there,  yet  Mrs.  S,  a  f  holi- 
ness '  woman  and  a  good  neighbor  that  lives  in  the  alley  in 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  95 

the  rear,  has  said  so  much  to  our  servant  lately  about  the 
'  power  '  they  have  at  their  meetings,  I  thought  I  would  go> 
and  see  if  the  Lord  did  really  heal  people  now  days,  and' 
perhaps  he  might  heal  my  back  that's  been  troubling  me. 
'  I  really  can't  see/  said  she,  '  why  He  won't,  just  the  same 
as  the  Bible  says  He  used  to  do.'  'And  there's  my  daughter, 
well,  but  it  beats  all,  she's  just  wild  on  "  Christian  Science," 
and  I'll  be  bound  if  I  know  what  the  world  is  coming  to, 
any  way.  But  I  guess,  however,  that  "  one  world  at  a 
time  "  will  do,  and  that  it  don't  pay  to  worry  over  religious 
matters  very  much  anyhow.'  " 


CHAPTER  V. 

'*  How  TO  BECOME  A  MEDIUM." 

IN  a  pamphlet  written  by  Prof.  Cadwell,  a  mesmerist,, 
medium  and  spiritual  lecturer,  entitled  "  Spiritualism 
Versus  The  Bible,"  we  have  upon  pages  40  to  48  instruc- 
tions "how  to  become  a  medium."  "If  you  are  not  a 
medium  and  wish  to  become  one,"  instructions  follow  by 
which  complying  with  the  conditions  you  may  become  one. 
"  Your  best  and  quickest  way,"  he  says,  "  is  to  be  mes- 
merized by  any  mesmerist  that  you  may  have  confidence  in, 
requesting  that  as  soon  as  you  become  unconscious  he  ask 
some  spirit  to  come  and  take  control  of  your  physical  sys- 
tem," etc.' 

What  do  you  think  of  it?  Would  you  be  willing  with  your 
experience  with  embodied  spirits  to  hand  over  your  pocket 
book  to  a  stranger  in  a  strange  city  and  among  a  strange 
people  ?  Do  you  hand  over  what  is  more  valuable — your 
agency  to  &c\.for  yourself  in  important  matters  especially  ? 
Do  you  ever  employ  and  trust  an  agent  with  temporal  affairs 


96  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

in  a  limited  sense  without  credentials  of  honesty  ?  Do  you 
take  your  wife  and  daughter  into  any  and  every  kind  of 
society  without  reference  to  or  knowledge  of  their  character  ? 

"  One  great  hindrance  to  mediumship,"  says  the  Professor, 
"with  those  who  sit,  is  the  fear  of  being  made  to  say  or  do 
something  they  may  be  ashamed  of"  "  If  you  sit  for  spirits 
to  control  you,  let  them  do  it  the  best  way  they  can,  and 
not  interfere  too  much"  "  If  you  wish  to  know  whether  you 
are  a  medium  for  a  partial  or  full  form  materialization,  sit 
with  a  few  intimate  friends,  place  a  number  of  articles  on 
the  table  before  sitting  around  it,  and  make  the  room  per- 
fectly dark  during  the  first  few  sittings.  There  may  be  a 
guitar  or  violin  on  the  table,  a  small  tea-bell,  a  glass  partially 
filled  with  water,  and  one  containing  a  tea  spoon.  Sit  with 
hands  joined  a  part  of  the  time,  and  engage  in  light,  but 
not  frivolous  or  excitable,  conversation,  and  in  singing  some 
well-known  song,  in  which  the  majority  or  all  should  join. 
About  one  hour  is  long  enough  to  sit,  unless  the  manifesta- 
tions commence.  Do  not  expect  too  much  at  first.  Let 
the  same  company  sit,  and  in  the  same  room  at  regular  in- 
tervals once  or  twice  a  week,  for  not  less  than  eight  or  ten 
weeks.  Let  no  others  join,  unless  known  to  be  in  PERFECT 
SYMPATHY  and  very  mediumistic.  The  probabilities  are, 
judging  from  my  past  experience,  that  five  out  of  ten  of 
such  circles  will  get  MANIFESTATIONS  within  a  month."  *  *  * 
"You  may  hold  two  slates  tied  together  with  a  crumb  of 
pencil  between  them,  and  when  sufficiently  magnetized  by  the 
hands,  you  may  get  writing  between  the  slates."  (Pages 
44  to  46.) 

For  years  the  brain  of  Bishop,  the  "mind  reader,"  was 
positively  electric  with  a  nerve  force  that  mirrored  with  the 
most  astounding  accuracy  the  pulsations  that  were  tele- 
graphed to  him  through  an  infinitesmal  and  subtle  force  and 
power  the  thought  of  another  soul  or  spirit  inhabiting  a 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  97 

body.  What  possibilities  of  deception,  if  we  admit  the  ex- 
istence of  disembodied  spiritual  intelligences,  may  there  not 
be  developed  through  mortals  yielding  up  the  agency  of 
their  bodies  to  them  ? 

It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  tell  my  readers  the  law  by 
which  they  may  avoid  deception,  or  become  the  victims  of 
fraud,  and  the  dupes  of  a  bad  man  or  the  flattering  seductive 
ways  of  evil  women  in  this  world.  But  it  is  a  hard  and  too 
oft  a  thankless  task  to  undertake  to  convert  or  try  to  reason 
with  a  man  or  woman,  who,  fleeing  from  "dead  works  "  and 
useless  and  unprofitable  forms  of  worship  in  fashionable 
churches  to  the  modern  seance  room,  fall  into  the  clutches 
of  a  very  host  of  spiritual  intelligences,  whose  feats  of 
mental  and  physical  legerdemain,  startle  us  into  forgetfulness 
of  the  necessity  of  asking  for  credentials,  or  even  stopping  to 
think  of  the  necessity  of  "trying  the  spirits."  Indeed, 
what  we  want  most  to  know,  after  sixteen  centuries  of  spirit- 
ual starvation,  and  doubt  and  gloom,  and  experiment  with 
men-made  Gods  and  gospels,  is,  whether  there  are  any 
spirits  at  all?  And  company  that  can  give  us  assurance 
that  the  dead  are  not  dead,  are  to  be  welcomed  with  or 
without  credentials  or  character. 

A  fortune  teller  will  flourish  who  tells  us  the  thing  we 
want  to  know. 

A  "medium"  will  gather  the  golden  harvest  who  can 
produce  a  spirit  that  is  able  to  "  persuade  "  us  that  we  are 
better  than  we  are,  or  that  the  conditions  of  purity  and  holi- 
ness are  not  essential  to  prevention  of  deception  through 
"  lying  signs  and  wonders  "  wrought  by  the  "  prince  of  the 
power  of  the  air,"  the  spirits  that  now  entice  the  children  of 
the  flesh,  and  of  the  world,  and  of  disobedience. 

A  mother  in  search  of  a  babe  "  forever  lost  "  will  not  be 
careful  to  scan  the  "revelation"  that  promises  a  reunion. 
Only  too  willing  is  she  to  comply  with  any  condition  that 


98  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

promises,  or  any  spirit  that  can  be  made  to  satisfy  her  that 
it  is  a  spirit  she  is  willing  to  meet  more  than  half  way  or 
to  believe  their  every  tale.  What,  I  ask,  what  will  not  a 
man  or  woman,  a  husband  or  wife,  a  father  or  a  mother,  lay 
upon  the  altar  of  affection  ? 

Oh,  sin-stricken,  faithless,  hungry,  thirsty,  starving  soul ! 
Listen  to  one  who  has  run  the  gauntlet,  and  whose  heart 
and  brain  and  life  has  been  tested  in  the  crucible  of  forces 
that  are  pressing  upon  human  consciousness  and  human  hun- 
ger and  human  need  to-day. 

Listen  !  while  to-day  I  point  you  to  the  Immaculate  Son 
of  God,  and  ask  you  once  more,  in  this  closing  word  and 
appeal,  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  God  from  the  clouds,  "  This 
is  my  beloved  son,  hear  ye  him ;"  and  while  he  talks  to  the 
Samaritan  woman,  let  us  listen  as  perhaps  we  never  listened 
before. 

"  The  woman  saith  unto  him,  Sir,  thou  hast  nothing  to 
draw  with,  and  the  well  is  deep  :  from  whence  then  hast 
thou  that  living  water  ? 

"  Art  thou  greater  than  our  father  Jacob,  which  gave  us 
the  well,  and  drank  thereof  himself,  and  his  children,  and 
his  cattle  ? 

"  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  her,  Whosoever  drinketh 
of  this  water  shall  thirst  again  : 

"  But  whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him  shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him 
shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting 
life."  (JOHN  4,  n  :  14.) 

There  were  two  wells  there  where  1800  years  ago  Jesus 
talked  with  the  woman  of  Samaria. 

The  site  of  one  is  lost ;  the  other,  the  source  of  its  won- 
drous and  life-giving  power  having  become  corrupted 
through  giving  heed  to  doctrines  of  men  and  the  more  sub- 
tle doctrines  of  devils,  for  centuries  has  been  unknown. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFEST  A  TIONS.  99 

The  means  by  which  that  fountain  of  "living  water"  may 
be  reached,  is  in  the  fact  that  to  the  writer  the  cup  has  been 
pressed  to  his  lips  through  the  restoration  in  our  day,* 
according  to  Christ's  promise,  of  the  law  and  the  gospel,  by 
which  and  only  through  which  the  righteousness  of  God  was 
revealed  to  Paul — is  revealed  to  him — and  reader,  may  be 
by  your  own  act  revealed  to  you. 

Before  we  take  our  leave  of  you,  we  desire  to  call  another 
witness  from  the  past,  and  we  listen  to — 

"  Simon  Peter,  a  servant  and  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
them  that  have  obtained  like  precious  faith  with  us  through 
the  righteousness  of  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ : 

"  Grace  and  peace  be  multiplied  unto  you  through  the 
knowledge  of  God,  and  of  Jesus  our  Lord, 

"  According  as  his  divine  power  hath  given  unto  us  all 
things  that  pertain  unto  life  and  godliness,  through  the 
knowledge  of  him  that  hath  called  us  to  glory  and  virtue  : 
(II  Peter  i,  i  to  3.) 

Not  only  do  we  want  and  need  to  know  of  something 
that  pertains  to  our  existence,  but  to  Peter  there  was  given 
through  a  "  divine  power"  "  all  things  that  pertain  to  life" 
as  well  as  Godliness. 

It  is  not  enough  to  satisfy  ;  it  is  not  enough  to  know ;  it  is 
not  the  design  of  God  that  we  should  be  satisfied  with  life 
as  it  comes  to  the  animal  creation,  without  will,  volition, 
desire,  or  intelligent  action.  Life  in  its  abounding  sense  and 

*"  And  I  saw  another  angel  fly  in  the  midst  of  heaven,  having  the 
everlasting  gospel  to  preach  unto  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth,  and  to 
every  nation,  and  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people, 

"  Saying  with  a  loud  voice,  Fear  God,  and  give  glory  to  him;  for 
the  hour  of  his  judgment  is  come  :  and  worship  him  that  made  heaven, 
and  earth,  and  the  sea,  and  the  fountains  of  waters. 

"  And  there  followed  another  angel,  saying,  Babylon  is  fallen,  is 
fallen,  that  great  city,  because  she  made  all  nations  drink  of  the  wine 
of  the  wrath  of  her  fornication."  (REV.  xiv,  6,  7,  8). 


ioo  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

fullness  is  and  can  only  be  revealed  as  we  walk  the  narrow 
way  which  a  divine,  a  "  revealed  "  law  points  out  to  us  in 
which  to  travel.  "  Straight  is  the  gate  that  leads  to  life,"  in 
its  full  and  complete  sense ;  there  is  no  crookedness,  nor 
darkness,  nor  winding,  deceptive,  evasive,  nor  destroy- 
ing agency,  or  opposite  form  of  life  that  shall  be  able  to 
deceive  or  to  mislead  him  who  hath  the  wisdom  and  the 
courage  to  tread  this  shining  way  of  light.  Light  shining  and 
luminous  with  reason,  virtue,  intelligence,  holiness,  purity, 
"  all  things"  that  pertain  to  a  profitable  and  Godly  existence. 

"  Jesus  said  unto  her,  Whosoever  drinketh  of  this  water 
shall  thirst  again." 

What  fountain  my  reader  have  you  been  drinking  from  ? 
How  does  it  effect  your  growth  ?  and  are  you  satisfied  ?  If 
not — if  the  doctrines  of  men  and  experience  with  spirit 
agency  has  left  a  void  in  your  soul — let  me  beseech  you  as 
one  who  loves  your  soul  to  come  with  me,  and  let  me  per- 
suade you  to  let  down  your  vessel  into  that  well  and  test 
that  promise  and  see  if  it  be  not  true  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  same,  yesterday,  to-day,  forever,  and  "  though  having 
not  seen  Him,"  know  that  He  lives  to  redeem  His  promises 
to-day  to  those  who  believe  on  Him  and  obey  His  law. 

"  For  the  promise  (of  the  Holy  Ghost)  is  unto  you,  and 
io  your  children  and  to  all  them  that  are  afar  off,  even 
as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call."  (Acrs  ii :  39.) 

Reader,  you  are  now  called  by  God's  chosen  ministry. 
Our  life  against  its  failure — if  you  but  comply  with  "  the 
law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Possession  of  this  power  from  God  will  place  you  not 
only  in  possession  of  "  some  "  things,  but  "  all  things  that 
pertain  unto  life." 

"In  the  last  day,  that  great  day  of  the  feast,  Jesus  stood  and 
cried,  saying,  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me,  and 
drink. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  101 

"  He  that  believeth  on  me,  as  the  scripture  hath  said,  out 
of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water. 

"  (But  this  spake  he  of  the  Spirit,  which  they  that  believe 
on  him  should  receive  :  for  the  Holy  Ghost  was  not  yet 
given  ;  because  that  Jesus  was  not  yet  glorified.)"  (}OHN  vii, 

37:39-) 

Have  you  been  blessed  with  a  portion  of  the  spirit  of  God 
in  your  religious  experience  that  makes  it  hard  for  you  to 
yield  to  the  persuasions  of  men  or  spirits — that  the  name  of 
Jesus  has  not  a  different  sound  than  other  names,  and 
though  even  clouded  by  the  creeds,  is  still  to  you  "  a  name 
which  is  above  every  other  name ;  "  that  the  Bible  still 
must  have  something  in  it  for  you  that  neither  priest  or 
atheist  has  ever  been  able  to  either  fully  explain  or  to  do 
away?  Are  you  still  groping  in  that  partial  "light  that 
lightens  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world,"  no  matter 
whether  he  be  Christian  or  Pagan,  and  still  unsatisfied,  still 
thirsting  for  the  waters  of  a  life  yet  higher,  broader,  deeper 
than  you  have  ever  known?  In  other  words,  Have  you 
received  the  HOLY  GHOST  since  you  believed  ?  I  mean  the 
ancient  Holy  Ghost,  that  absolute  promise  made  by  the 
Saviour,  and  not  that  counterfeit  imitation  upon  which  you 
have  tried  to  feed  your  soul,  but  that  "  another  comforter," 
even  the  spirit  of  truth  whom  the  world  cannot  receive, 
because,  blinded  by  priestcraft  and  apostacy,  and  seducing 
spirits  and  the  flattering  and  plausible  doctrine  of  devils,  it, 
"the  world,"  "  seeth  him  not  neither  knoweth  him." 
Whosoever  drinketh  of  the  corrupted  fountains  of  the  world 
shall  thirst  again. 

"  But  whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him  shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him 
shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting 
life." 

Do    you    lack    knowledge    concerning    heavenly   gifts? 


102  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND 

Remember  that  if  you  are  a  member  of  Christ's  body,  "  a 
branch  of  the  true  vine,"  His  words  abiding  in  you,  you 
shall  ask  what  you  will,  for  you  will  riot  then  be  disposed  to 
ask  amiss,  and  He  will  give  it  unto  you  through  His  prom- 
ised representative. 

"Is  any  sick  among  you" — the  church — "let  him  call 
for  the  elders  of  the  church-,  let  them  pray  over  them, 
anointing  them  with  oil  in  the  name" — by  the  authority — "of 
the  Lord,  and  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick,"  for 
to  one,  by  this  spirit  of  promise,  "  is  given  the  gift  of  heal- 
ing." "  If  any  man"  among  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask 
of  God  through  this  legitimate  means,  and  not  of  "familiar 
spirits  "  ;  "for  to  one  is  given  the  gift  of  wisdom,  to  another 
the  gift  of  knowledge,  to  another  the  gift  of  faith,  to  another 
discerning  of  spirits,  to  another  the  gift  of  tongues,  to 
another  prophecy,"  etc.,  etc.  "All,  all  things  that  pertain 
unto  life  and  godliness  "  are  in  the  keeping  of  this  promised 
comforter.  This  is  the  well*  and  the  fountain  we  call  you 
to  drink  of.  Reader,  will  you  come  ?  Once  more  we  ask 
you  to  hear  his  voice  : 

"  At  that  time  Jesus  answered  and  said,  I  thank  thee,  O 
Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  because  thou  hast  hid 
these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed 
them  unto  babes. 

"  Even  so,  Father  :  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy  sight. 

"  All  things  are  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father  :  and  no 
man  knoweth  the  Son^  but  the  Father ;  neither  knoweth  any 
man  the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the 
Son  will  reveal  him. 

"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest. 

"  Take  my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me ;  for  I  am 
meek  and  lowly  in  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls. 


SPIRITUAL  MANIFESTATIONS.  103 

"  For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is  light."     (MATE 
n,  25  130.)    - 


And  to  the  brethren  of  the  Church  of  God  and  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  all  the  world,  we  send  you  our  love  and  our  assur- 
ance of  God's  goodness,  and  of  an  eternal  and  abiding 
faith  in  his  wondrous  and  holy  promises  secured  to  us  by 
obedience  to  our  glorious  evangel — the  ancient  gospel 
restored  in  all  its  happy  fullness  to  earth's  afflicted  sons  and 
daughters,  and  in  the  language  of  the  beloved  disciple,  we 
administer  to  you,  as  your  fellow-laborer  in  the  Lord,  our 
parting  benediction  and  blessing. 

"But  the  anointing  which  ye  have  received  of  him 
abideth  in  you  :  and  ye  need  not  that  any  man  teach  you  : 
but  as  the  same  anointing  teacheth  you  of  all  things,,  and 
is  truth,  and  is  no  lie,  and  even  as  it  hath  taught  you,  ye 
shall  abide  in  him." 


THE 


SEER  OF  PALMYRA, 


OR 


THE  THREE  WITNESSES. 


A    SEQUEL  TO    SPIRITUAL    GIRTS. 


BY  M.  H.  BOND. 


"Produce  your  cause,  saith  the  Lord;  bring  forth  your  strong  reasons, 

saith  thfe  King  of  Jacob,— 

— Let'them  bring  them  forth,  and  shew  us  what  shall  happen, — 
— Shew  the  things  that  are  to  come  hereafter,  that  we  may  know  that  ye 

are  gods." — ISA.  xli:  21-24. 


"And  if  thou  say  in  thine  heart,  How  shall  we  know  the  word  which  the 
Lord  hath  spoken  ? — 

—When  a  prophet  speaketh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  if  the  thing  follow 
not,  nor  come  to  pass,  that  is  the  thing  which  the  Lord  hath  not  spoken, 
but  the  prophet  hath  spoken  presumptiously:  thou  shalt  not  be  afraid  of 
him." — DEUT.  xviii:  21,  22. 


PREFACE  TO  SUPPLEMENT. 


'HE  criticism  that  "Spiritual  Gifts"  is  a  sort  of 
cul-de-sac,  i.  e.,  a  "blind  canal"  that  leads  nowhere, 
has  been  impressed  upon  the  mind  of  the  writer, 
or,  in  other  words,  that  while  many  might  agree  that  the 
arraignment  of  popular  religion  for  its  inconsistency  in 
claiming  sanction  from  either  reason  or  the  Bible  was  just, 
and  that  the  claim  of  Spiritualism  that  similarity  of  appear- 
ance in  exhibition  of  supernatural  power  through  their 
mediums  to  the  phenomenon  or  "signs"  promised  by  Jesus 
and  manifested  in  the  early  Christian  church,  was  proof  of 
but  one  origin  for  both  are  evidenced  to  be  unsafe  and  un- 
warranted conclusions,  yet  have  we,  ourselves,  failed  to  but 
hint  at  the  way  out  of  difficulties  that  beset  the  dissatisfied 
but  earnest  seeker  after  truth. 

If  any  have  been  led  to  think  thus,  we  have  only  this  to 
say :  That  our  object  first,  in  writing,  was  to  stimulate 
thought  among  people,  both  in  the  church  and  out,  in  re- 
gard to  the  difficulties  that  beset  the  feet  of  the  unwary  and 
the  novice  in  the  consideration  of  these  things,  and  the 
danger  of  confounding  manifestations  of  occult  force  in  their 
application  to  religious  truths,  and  the  great  care  and  dis- 
crimination needed  in  dealing  with  the  tremendous  powers 
which  the  age  is  fast  discovering  man  to  be  subject  to ;  to 
point  to  the  consideration  of  the  primitive  and  original 
methods  of  obtaining  light  as  revealed  in  reason  and  rational 
scripture  interpretation. 

To  the  stranger  to  the  gospel  message  as  revealed  from 
heaven  in  our  day,  who  may  have  read  the  book  and  felt  dis- 


4  PREFACE  TO  SUPPLEMENT. 

satisfied  at  the  close,  in  that  it,  as  before  expressed,  "led 
nowhere,"  we  offer  as  a  necessarily  brief  apology  and  explan- 
ation, this  "Supplement." 

And  to  members  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  only 
say  :  Believing  that  the  complex  grouping  in  which  the  In- 
finite Spirit  of  God  may  formulate  and  postulate  the  glorious 
evidences  of  our  Evangel  can  never  be  exhausted  in  time, 
nor,  we  believe,  in  eternity,  we  submit  for  their  kindly 
criticism  our  epitomized  evidences  of  the  truth  of  the  Latter 
Day  Message. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA, 


OR 


SEQUEL  TO  "  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS." 


CHAPTER  I.— THE  THREE  WITNESSES. 

"  We  have  also,  a  more  sure  word  of  prophesy,  whereunto  ye  do 
well  to  take  heed  as  unto  a  light  that  shineth  in  a  dark  place,  until 
the  day  dawn,  and  the  day  star  arise  in  your  hearts." — (II  PETER,  i :  19.) 

"In  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  shall  every  word  be 
established. " —  (  MOSES.  ) 

So  says  Moses,  Jesus,  Common  Law,  Common  Justice, 
Reason  and  Right. 

The  character  of  testimony  admissible  in  courts  of 
common  jurisprudence  is  thus  defined  by  Worcester  : — 

"Any  matter  of  fact,  the  effect  or  design  of  which,  when  presented 
to  the  human  mind  is  to  produce  a  persuasion  affirmative  or  dis- 
affirmative  of  the  existence  of  some  other  fact.  The  means  by  which 
facts  are  obtained  for  judicial  purposes." 

In  other  words,  the  preponderance  of  evidence  is  entitled 
to  the  verdict.  Upon  this  basis  decrees  are  rendered  that 
may  deprive  a  man  of  his  life. 

Our  religion  is  upon  trial  in  this  nineteenth  century ;  the 
world  is  summoned  as  a  jury,  and  they  will  be  charged  with 
the  rendering  of  a  verdict  and  judgment  that  the  ages  have 
given  sanction  to :  the  judgment  which  unimpeachable 
testimony  of  as  many  witnesses  as  the  law  may  demand  in 
order  to  produce  a  preponderance  of  evidence,  and  to  effect 
a  conviction  in  honest  minds. 

It  will  not  be  enough    for   us   to   say — "We  are   not 


6  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

interested  in  religious  matters,  and  especially  in  your 
message."  We  are  all  interested,  and  involved  in  it — 
as  we  shall  show,  whether  you  realize  it  now  or  not — and 
when  the  evidence  is  all  presented  you  will  be  called  upon 
to  decide. 

Eighteen  centuries  ago,  there  appeared  among  men  an 
obscure  and  unlearned  Galilean.  Whatever  notoriety  or 
fame  he  may  have  obtained  in  his  day  among  the  popular 
and  fashionable  world — especially  the  religious  portion  of  it 
— was  the  notoriety  that  attached  to  a  malefactor.  A  man 
"born  of  fornication,"  of  lowly  surroundings,  and  questionable 
associations.  A  man  m  whom  none  of  the  rulers  and  public 
teachers  of  the  Pharisees  believed  as  other  than  an  imposter. 
In  his  following  were  to  be  found  few,  very  few,  save  the 
poor,  the  illiterate,  the  unfortunate  born  and  the  poverty 
reared ;  and  hung  at  last  between  thieves  and  the  heavens 
upon  charges  of  blasphemy  of  their  holy  religion  by  the 
Jew,  and  of  conspiracy  against  Caesar's  government  by  the 
Roman  nation.  Hated  and  hunted  to  the  death,  was  this 
"  man  of  sorrows,"  by  the  religious  leaders  of  the  day, 
whose  inconsistency,  hypocrisy  and  apostacy  from  the  faith 
of  God  he  denounced  with  a  force  and  clearness  that 
rendered  the  employment  of  every  species  and  every  weapon 
of  warfare,  save  the  truth,  a  necessity  upon  their  part  in 
order  to  save  their  systems  from  overthrow. 

With  open  scripture  in  his  hand  he  quoted  from  the  law 
by  which  in  pretense  they  claimed  to  be  governed,  and 
read  concerning  himself,  "  It  is  written."  His  disciples  and 
followers  after  him,  when  brought  before  the  judgment  seat 
of  Jew  or  Gentile,  for  a  reason  for  their  faith,  testified  to 
"  none  other  things  than  Moses  and  the  prophets  said  should 
come."  They  affirmed,  not  as  eye  witnesses  alone  concern- 
ing Jesus,  that  not  only  had  they  seen  him  alive,  and  that 
he  had  manifested  himself  unto  them  "  by  many  infallible 


CW,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  7 

proofs,"  but  that  "he  died,  was  buried,  and  rose  the  third 
day  according  to  the  scriptures." 

Did  this  array  of  rational  argument  and  testimony  con- 
vince, convert,  or  reform  the  Jew  ?  Nay  !  They  were  too 
steeped  in  the  fashion  and  pride  of  this  world ;  the  prestige 
of  fleshy  power  was  too  dear ;  the  praise  of  men,  the  emolu- 
ments of  their  priestly  office,  coupled  with  their  rage  at  him- 
self and  followers  because  of  their  exposure  of  their  true 
position  in  the  light  of  rational  scripture  interpretation,  rea- 
son, justice  and  truth,  was  too  much  for  them  to  confess  and 
renounce.  They  said  :  "  We  are  stronger  with  error  upon 
our  side,  than  are  these  illiterate  fishermen  and  tax  gatherers 
with  truth  upon  their  side,"  and  discarding  the  warnings  of 
their  prophets,  refusing  the  message  of  the  "base  things  of 
this  world,"  whom  God  in  his  own  inscrutable  wisdom  had 
chosen  to  represent  his  truth,  they  sought  by  slander,  mis- 
representation, ostracism  and  physical  force  to  destroy  from 
under  the  sun  the  message  of  Jesus  Christ. 

So  transcendently  above  the  world  was  his  doctrine,  that 
no  wonder  was  his  mission  misconstrued.  That  God  should 
choose  "the  weak  things  of  this  world  to  "  supersede  "the 
wisdom  of  the  mighty"  was  not  conceived  of  by  them. 
The  very  faults  and  human  weaknesses  and  worldly  ignorance 
betrayed  by  the  early  saints,  as  witnessed  in  the  Pauline 
Epistles,  made  the  Gospel  message  "  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling 
block,  and  to  the  Greek  foolishness,"  and  ignoring  the 
spirit,  the  power  and  the  life  that  was  in  Moses  and  the  proph- 
ets, they  placed  the  ban  of  popular  ecclesiastical  ostra- 
cism upon  it,  and  drove  its  adherents  to  prison  and  to  death. 

The  war  of  differences  was  waged,  "and  a  man's  foes 
were  of  his  own  household,"  and  the  followers  of  Jesus  were 
"  hated  of  all  men  "  because  of  the  falsehoods  and  slanders 
set  on  foot  by  the  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith ;  and 
"  authentic  history "  during  the  first  and  second  century 


8  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

tells  us  that  the  early  Christians  "were  haters  of  mankind," 
and  that  the  religion  of  Jesus,  was,  according  to  Tacitus,  "  a 
destructive  superstition." 

Has  human  nature  changed  ? 

Is  human  history  repeating  itself  in  our  day  in  regard  to 
religion  ? 

Has  the  truths  of  God  changed,  or  has  God  changed  in 
his  manner  of  revealing  his  mind  and  will  ? 

If  not — with  the  history  of  the  Jew,  and  his  fate  as  a 
nation,  for  the  rejection  of  Heaven's  message  before  us,  in 
the  awful  history  of  his  suffering  for  eighteen  centuries — let 
us  proceed  to  our  brief  presentation  of 

THE  LATTER  DAY  MESSAGE. 

Was  Joseph  Smith  a  prophet  of  God,  or  an  impostor  ? 

Is  the  religious  system  understood,  or  misunderstood,  in 
the  world  to-day  as  "Mormonism,"  from  first  to  Jast,  as 
characterized  by  Joseph  Cook,  a  "  Latter  Day  Swindle  ?" 
Or  is  it,  separated  from  the  apostasy  which  polygamy  and 
other  kindred  evils  which  afflicted  the  early  Christian  Church, 
a  message  to  mankind  which  can  no  more  safely  be  treated 
with  unfairness,  unreason,  or  injustice,  than  could  the  Jew 
and  the  world  meet  the  message  of  Jesus  and  his  followers 
with  a  flat  refusal  to  submit  to  honorable  rules  of  warfare  in 
the  discussion  of  religious  questions  without  danger  of  ulti- 
mate overthrow  of  their  systems  of  religious  faith? 

2d. — Is  "  Mormonism"  in  its  origin  an  "avant  courier"  of 
modern  Spiritualism,  and  was  Joseph  Smith  a  prophet  of 
God  in  the  same  sense  only  as  are  all  mediums  who  claim 
supernatural  direction  and  spiritual  control  ? 

Our  reply  to  both  of  these  questions  must  be  found  in  a 
brief  exposition  and  application  to  events  that  have  tran- 
spired and  are  now  taking  place  in  our  day,  of  the  text 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  9 

quoted  from  in  the  beginning,  and  taken  from  the  second 
letter  of  Peter  (II  PETER,  i,  19)  : 

"  We  have  also  a  more  sure  word  of  prophesy." 

This  "word  of  prophesy,"  refers  in  comparison  to  some 
antecedent  testimony  which  we  find  by  reading  the  three 
previous  verses  to  be  a  brief  allusion  to  what  our  modern 
spiritualistic  friends  would  term  a  materialization  of  spirit 
forms,  the  record  of  which  event  is  alluded  to  by  Matthew 
in  the  iyth  chapter  of  his  testimony  beginning  with  the  ist 
verse : 

"And  after  six  days  Jesus  taketh  Peter,  James,  and  John  his  brother, 
and  bringeth  them  up  into  a  high  mountain  apart, 

"And  was  transfigured  before  them;  and  his  face  did  shine  as  the 
sun,  and  his  raiment  was  white  as  the  light. 

"And,  behold,  there  appeared  unto  them  Moses  and  Elias  talking 
with  him." 

"While  ke  yet  spake,  behold,  a  bright  cloud  overshadowed  them; 
and  behold  a  voice  out  of  the  cloud,  which  said,  This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased;  hear  ye  him."  (Matthew  xvii,  1:2: 
3:50 

As  the  differences  between  this  supernatural  manifesta- 
tion and  the  manifestations  of  the  modern  seance  room  and 
cabinet  exhibitions  have  been  referred  to  previously  in  the 
pages  of  this  book,  we  stop  not  now  to  analyze  differences, 
but  proceed  to  call  the  attention  of  spritualists,  and  inves- 
tigators of  their  claims  and  the  lovers  of  truth  everywhere, 
to  a  class  of  evidences  and  testimony  seldom  seen  upon 
the  witness  stand  in  our  day. 

"  We  have  also  a  more  sure  word  of  prophesy." 

Peter's  position  is,  we  claim,  in  spite  of  the  lack  of  his 
ecclesiastical  educational  advantages,  an  impregnable  one — 
grand,  stable,  intellectual,  and  abiding  in  the  character  of 
its  forcefulness  and  reasoning.  Let  us  follow  this  authorized 
representative  of  Jesus  who  was  called  the  Christ,  taking 
along  with  us  our  "Three  Witnesses,"  referred  to  in  the 


io  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

>  • 
beginning,  lest   we   be  deceived  in  this  age  of  deception 

and  doubt. 

Peter  has  been  to  what  would,  if  given  a  modern  name, 
be  called  a  "  seance,"  and  witnessed  with  James  and  John 
and  Jesus,  a  materialization  of  the  spirit  forms  of  Moses  and 
Elias,  and  in  addition,  has  heard  the  supernatural  voice — 
"  This  is  my  beloved  son."  Enough,  we  would  say,  to 
satisfy,  and  perhaps  convert,  the  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage,  Rev. 
Heber  Newton,  the  editor  of  the  "Arena,"  Mary  Livermore, 
and  others  who  have  become  interested  in  modern 
spiritualistic  phenomena,  and  who  have  signed  an  appeal 
for  the  establishing  of  a  "  Psychic  Investigation  Association  " 
in  the  city  of  Boston  in  order  to  find  a  satisfaction  and 
evidence  concerning  heavenly  things,  which  the  theology  of 
Joseph  Cook  does  not  furnished  them  with,  as  well  as  thous- 
ands of  other  honest  yet  dissatisfied  investigators. 

Leaving  then,  for  the  time,  these  manifestations,  or 
evidences  for  what  they  were  in  Peter's  day,  or  may,  or  may 
not,  in  our  day  be  worth  to  mankind,  let  us  follow  him  in 
his  argument.  "  We  have  also  a  more  sure  word  of 
prophesy."  Strong  as  was  the  evidence  apparently  furnished 
to  Peter  in  the  testimony  upon  the  mount,  his  experience 
and  knowledge  of  the  possibility  of  deception,when  "visions," 
"  apparitions,  "  or  occult  manifestations  were  to  serve  as  the 
basis  of  men's  faith,  leads  him  to  the  higher  intellectual  and 
moral  ground  to  be  occupied  in  the  discussion  of  evidence 
in  regard  to  heavenly  things  as  revealed  in  a  correct  under- 
standing and  proper  interpretation  of  the  "  more  sure  word 
of  prophesy  "  concerning  the  truth  of  the  message  he  was 
called  of  Jesus  Christ  to  deliver  the  world. 

Rational  and  abiding  ground  for  belief  in  the  mission  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  not  alone  safely  to  be  predicated  in  the  fact 
that  a  vision,  or  similitude  of  the  dead  Moses  and  Elias  had 
appeared  to  him,  but  rather  in  the  intellectual,  rational,  and 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  QIPTS.  11 

permanent  argument  that  should  stand  the  wear  and  test  of 
the  ages,  that— thousands  and  hundreds  of  years  before  his 
existence  upon  earth — men,  under  the  movement  and  inspir- 
ation of  a  power  that  was  willing  to  write  its  own  test  of  truth 
upon  enduring  tablets  and  throw  down  the  gauge  and  chal- 
l^nge  to  every  power  to  a  disproof  of  its  importance  and 
truthfulness,  and  had  "shown  before,  the  coming  of  the  just 
o;ie;"  had  anticipated  his  reception,  and  photographed 
history  upon  the  mind  of  men,  ages  before  it  was  conceived 
of,  or  born  in  human  wisdom,  or  of  human  knowledge. 
And,  when,  3000  years  ago,  the  King  of  Moab  withstood 
Baalam,  Baalam  the  son  of  Beor  took  up  in  prophesy  this 
parable  : 

"  He  said,  which  heard  the  words  of  God  and  knew  the  knowledge 
of  the  Most  High,  which  saw  the  vision  of  the  Almighty,  falling  into 
a  trance,  but  having  his  eyes  opened.  " 

"  I  shall  see  him,  but  not  now;  I  shall  behold  him,  but  not  nigh; 
there  shall  come  a  Star  out  of  Jacob,  and  a  Sceptre  shall  rise  out  of 
Israel.  "  "  Out  of  Jacob  shall  come  he  that  shall  have  dominion," 
etc.  (NUM.  xxiv,  15-19.) 

"  To  Him  gave  all  the  prophets  witness, "  said  Peter, 
(Acis  x :  43-.) 

From  Genesis  to  Malachi,  the  Infinite  Spirit  of  truth, 
impressing  itself  upon  human  agency  and  voicing  itself  in 
human  speech,  sometimes,  it  is  true/ less  clear  than  at  others, 
but,  altogether,  in  the  chain  of  evidences  extending  over 
ages  of  time,  revealed,  the  one  purpose  of  a  superior  intelli- 
gence promising  and.  portraying  events  whose  fulfillment  in 
Jesus'  day  and  in  his  own  person  could  by  no  possible 
means  suggest  collusion  or  attempt  to  fulfill  a  promised  pro- 
gramme, by  a  life  of  suffering  and  self-denial  upan  the  part 
of  the  principal  actors  in  order  to  carry  out  and  perpetuate 
a  fraud  upon  the  world. 

The  presence  of  John  his  forerunner,  his  nativity  from 
n  virgin,  as  well  as  his  human  generation,  his  miraculous 


12  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA; 

power,  his  entry  into  Jerusalem,  his  betrayal,  his  insult, 
buffeting  and  scourging,  patience  under  suffering,  his 
prophetic  character  and  priestly  office,  his  stupendous  claim 
for  himself,  and  bold  promise  of  heavenly  revelation  to  the 
obedient  to  his  law  as  regarding  himself,  his  rejection  by 
Jew  and  Gentile,  his  betrayal,  his  trial,  death  with  the 
wicked,  the  parting  of  his  vesture,  his  burial  with  the  rich, 
his  resurrection,  exaltation,  ascension,  etc.,  etc.  This,  to 
Peter,  and  to  us,  was,  and  is,  the  second,  and  more  stable, 
far  reaching,  and  important  witness  to  the  message  of  truth 
which  they  had  to  present  to  the  world  than  was  the  vision 
upon  the  mount. 

That  men,  in  and  of  themselves,  could  write  history  as 
faithfully  as  was  portrayed  in  the  Jewish  scriptures  ages 
before  its  fulfillment,  was,  in  human  analogy  and  experience, 
to  Peter,  as  it  is  to  us,  unreasonable  ;  that  they  were  the 
result  of  but  one  mind  and  one  plan  was  evident. 

"For  prophesy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man;  but  holy 
men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved  upon  by  the  Holy  Ghost" 
(II  PET.  i,  21). 

This  was  God's  method  of  revealing  his  mind  and  will  to 
men  prior  to  the  advent  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  Jesus  Christ 
himself,  fulfilling  the  plan  thus  foretold  by  prophet  and  seer, 
summoned  Heaven  as  witness  to  his  mission,  and  promised 
the  same  testator  in  regard  to  himself  and  his  gospel  to  every 
one  who  should  submit  themselves  to  his  law,  and  thus 
bringing  in  the  third  witness  to  the  truth,  as  referred  to  by 
Peter  in  the  closing  paragraph  of  the  text : 

"Until  the  day  dawn,  and  the  day  star  arise  in  your  heart."  (II 
PET.  i,  19.) 

There  was  the  vision  upon  the  mount,  and  the  supernatural 
manifestation,  but,  standing  amidst  a  host  of  deceptive  and 
counterfeiting  agencies,  it  could  not  introduce  a  rule  itself, 
isolated  and  alone  by  which  to  satisfactorily  test  and  "try  the 


OR,  A  SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  13 

spirits"  manifested  in  so  many  different  and  conflicting  ways, 
as  revealed  in  Peter's,  as  well  as  in  our  day,  unless  we  accept 
the  test  referred  to  by  St.  John  :  "  That  every  spirit  that  con- 
fessed Jesus,  the  Christ,  the  Messiah,  was  already  come  in  the 
flesh,  was  of  God  and  consequently  not  a  false  or  delusive 
spirit  or  manifestation.  (I  Jonxiv,  i  :  4.)  The  vision  upon 
the  mount  had  this  advantage,  as  all  similar  ones  must  have 
in  the  preponderance  of  evidence  furnished  to  reason,  in 
that  its  manifestations  and  revelations  were  "  according  to 
the  scriptures,"  i.e.,  somebody,  ages  perhaps  before,  testified 
of  these  things.  But  to  Peter  it  was  not  alone  enough  to  en- 
gage the  fordes  of  error  in  the  world,  and  he  summons  there- 
fore as  his  second  witness  "  a  more  sure  word  of  prophesy," 
whereunto  they  did  well  to  take  heed,  as  unto  a  light  shining 
in  a  dark  place.  In  other  words,  the  power  to  foretell,  as 
manifested  in  the  utterances  of  a  David,  an  Isaiah,  an 
Ezekiel,  or  a  Daniel,  or  a  Zechariah,  in  the  portrayal  in 
prophesy  of  the  grand  themes  their  revelations  gave  to  the 
world,  was  proof  of  the  existence  of  God  and  of  the  Superior 
Mind,  as  well  as  a  willingness  to  communicate  as  well  as 
human  weakness  would  permit,  its  witness  to  the  world  of 
mankind. 

But  then  there  were  false  prophets  and  seers  all  along  the 
line  of  history  from  Baalam's  day  and  Saul's.  The  worship 
of  Baal,  etc.,  etc.,  whose  cunning  admixture  of  truth  and 
error  in  such  proportions  as  was  also  seen  in  the  Egyptian 
and  Grecian  oracles,  and  which  made  them  a  source  of 
wealth  to  the  priest  who  practiced  enchantment,  manipul- 
ated consciously  or  unconsciously  the  powers  of  the  air,  and 
summoned  to  their  aid  the  language  of  the  heavens  to 
astound  the  ignorant  and  unwary. 

These  powers,  natural  or  supernatural,  were  not  abated  in 
exhibition  of  their  force  and  appeal  in  Peter's  day.  J-.sus 
and  his  disciples  were  constantly  met  in  their  ministry  by 


14  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

these  opposing  agencies,  and  which,  it  seems,  could  only  be 
exposed  by  heavenly  authority  and  manifestation  upon  the 
part  of  those  whom  God  had  commissioned  as  ambassadors 
of  his  eternal  truth. 

Thus  became  it  necessary  for  Jesus  to  warn  them  and  the 
world  against  false  prophets,  whose  disguise  the  ignorant 
and  unwary  would  fail  to  penetrate. 

False  prophets  were  to  arise,  according  to  Paul,  and  lead 
away  many,  and  Peter  forewarns  the  world,  as  shown  in  the 
previous  pages,  that  in  the  last  days  that  wicked  influence 
should  be  revealed,  whose  coming  and  advent  was  to  be 
after  the  cunning  and  plausible  power  of  Satan,  with  all 
power  of  signs  and  lying  wonders,  to  deceive  those  who 
were  not  willing  to  receive  the  love  of  the  truth,  but  would 
be  after  a  revelation  that  promised  continued  life,  and  lib- 
erty without  law  and  blessing  without  obedience. 

These  facts,  then,  made  the  introduction  of  the  third  and 
final  witness  and  rational  test  of  Peter's  religion  a  necessity, 
which  was  this : 

The  revelation,  by  heavenly  arrangement  according  to  the 
plan  devised  and  offered  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  was 
the  promise  and  pledge  of  the  Holy  Ghost  with  all  its 
blessed  and  manifold  gifts  to  man  by  Peter  upon  Penticost 
day ;  not  to  one,  but  to  all,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord 
"should  call." 

It  was  a  simple  reiteration  of  Jesus'  promise,  when  he 
said  : 

"  My  doctrine  is  not  mine,  but  His  that  sent.  me.  If  any  man  will 
do  the  will  of  God  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  is  of  God, 
or  whether  I  speak  of  myself." 

The  true  nature  and  character  of  Jesus  Christ,  more 
especially  that  concerning  his  nativity,  could  not  be  ascer- 
tained by  natural  method.  No  man  could  say  that  Jesus 
was  other  than  man,  with  certainty,  save  but  by  the  per- 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  15 

sonal  revelation  of  God  through  the  .  testimony  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Upon  the  contrary, 
they  were  likely  to,  and  did  say,  that  he  was  naught  but  a 
man,  and  in  most  cases  a  very  bad  man. 

But  when  this  holy  intelligence  and  influence  was  received 
through  obedience  to  the  doctrine  and  commandments  of 
Jesus,  not  only  was  his  divinity  revealed,  but  by  this 
unspeakable  gift  to  man,  he  was  through  conformity  to  law 
and  holy  living,  to  be  led  into,  guided  and  instructed  in  the 
way  of  all  truth. 

These  three  witnesses  then,  we  claim,  have  given  us  the 
permanency  and  stability  that  ever  belonged  to  the  early 
Christian  faith. 

By  the  sure  word  of  prophecy  and  this  testimony  of  Jesus 
to  them,  they  overcame  the  world  and  made  human  history 
illustrious  with  its  hope. 

Signs  and  wonders  might  be  counterfeited,  and  even 
prophesy  might  be  successfully  imitated  enough  by  satanic 
force  to  deceive,  besides  leaving  perhaps  a  man's  moral 
character  untouched  or  unregenerated,  but  the  spirit  of  truth 
was  culminative,  and  to  those  who  continued  in  his  word, 
unerasable  and  unanswerable.  The  way  to  knowledge  con- 
cerning heavenly  things  was  opened,  and  that  was  enough, 
for  Jehova  had  parted  the  vail  that  was  in  the  temple  which 
had  served  only  as  a  sensual  figure  or  type  to  Israel  of  the 
heavenly  thing  now  to  be  manifest  to  men  when  on  the 
cross  His  Son  said  :  "  It  is  finished,"  and  the  way  into  the 
Holy  of  Holies  was  opened  once  for  all,  and  man  might 
without  hindrance  or  let  draw  near  to  God. 

This,  then,  we  present  as  a  postulate  of  evid  nces  in  favor 
or  proof  of  original  Christianity. 


1 6  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA; 


CHAPTER    II. 

"  Surely,  the  Lord  God  will  do  nothing,  but  he  revealeth  his  secret  unto  his  ser- 
vants, the  prophets."  (AMOS  iii,  7.) 

"Produce  your  cause,  saith  the  Lord;  bring  forth  your  strong  reasons,  saith  the 
God  of  Jacob."  (IsA.  xli.  21.) 

PBOUT  seventy  years  ago,  in  the  western  part  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  a  young  man  about  fifteen  years 
of  age,  by  the  name  of  Joseph  Smith,  placed  before 
his  father's  family  and  startled  the  immediate  neighborhood 
by  the  statement  that  in  answer  to  prayer  he  had  received 
the  visitation  of  heavenly  angels. 

His  own  statement  concerning  these  events,  epitomized,  is 
something  like  this  :  That  while  deeply  moved  religiously 
through  revivals  that  were  being  held  in  his  neighborhood, 
and  finding  a  conflict  in  his  father's  family  as  to  which  of 
the  religious  sects  or  churches  they  should  join,  as  he  was 
reading  the  Bible,  his  eye  fell  upon,  this  passage  in  James 

GAS.  i,  5)  : 

"  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  that  giveth  to  all 
men  liberally,  and  upbraideth  not,  and  it  shall  be  given  him,"  etc. 

Being  too  inexperienced  in  modern  ways  of  juggling  the 
scriptures  to  presume  that  the  Lord  did  not  mean  what  he 
said,  he  proceeded  to  a  piece  of  woods  or  grove,  and 
kneeling  alone  he  prayed,  and  the  angels'  visit  is  thus 
described  by  him  : 

"My  object  in  going  to  enquire  of  the  Lord,  was  to  know  which  of 
all  these  sects  was  right,  that  I  might  know  which  one  of  them  to  join. 
I  asked  the  personages  who  stood  above  me  in  the  light,.- which  of  all 
the  sects  was  right,  for  it  had  never  entered  into  my  heart  that  all  were 
wrong,  and  which  I  should  join.  I  was  answered  that  I  should  join 
none  of  them  for  they  were  all  wrong,  and  the  personage  who 
addressed  me  said  that  all  the  creeds  were  an  abomination  in  his  sight, 
that  the  professors  of  religion  were  corrupt.  'They  draw  near  me 
with  their  lips,  but  their  hearts  are  far  from  me ;  they  teach  for  doc- 


OR,  A  SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  17 

trine  the  commandments  of  men,  having  a  form  of  godliness,  but  they 
deny  the  power  thereof.'  He  again  forbade  me  to  join  any  of  them." 
— HISTOEY  OF  JOSEPH  SMITH. 

From  the  minister  to  whom  he  confided  his  wonderful 
experience,  he  received  a  contemptuous  reply  that  he  was 
the  subject  of  hallucination,  and  that  it  was  all  of  the  Devil ; 
that  there  were  no  more  such  things  as  revelations  or  angels' 
visits  to  men ;  that  they  had  ceased  with  and  in  the  days  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles. 

Again,  on  the  eve  of  September  21,  1823,  another  vision 
was  presented  to  Joseph  Smith,  in  which  a  person,  glorious 
in  appearance  in  the  whiteness  of  his  robes  and  the  light 
which  accompanied  him,  who  told  him  that  he  was  a  mes- 
senger sent  from  God  to  inform  him  concerning  the  work 
that  the  Lord  had  selected  him  to  perform,  giving  him  to 
understand  at  the  outset  that  his  name  should  be  had  for 
good  and  evil  in  all  the  world  and  among  all  nations,  a  thing 
most  unlikely  to  happen  to  an  illiterate  youth.  He  said  that 
there  was  a  book  deposited  and  written  upon  gold  plates, 
giving  an  account  of  the  former  inhabitants  of  this  continent 
and  the  source  from  which  they  sprang.  He  also  said  that 
the  fulness  of  the  everlasting  gospel  was  contained  in  it  as 
delivered  by  the  Savior  to  the  ancient  inhabitants. 

He  also  quoted  from  the  Hebrew  scriptures  in  regard  to  the 
mission  of  Christ,  and  also  opened  up  to  this  youth  a  vision 
of  the  place  where  the  book  was  concealed,  so  that  it  was 
afterwards  found  by  this  means. 

Subsequently,  also,  by  angel  ministry,  and  in  fulfillment  of 
promises  made  by  heavenly  messengers  to  him  that  the  time 
had  come  for  the  Lord  himself  to  work  among  men,  and 
that  the  ancient  gospel  with  its  gifts  and  the  church  of 
Christ  was  to  be  restored  to  earth,  and  that  he  with  others 
was  to  be  endowed  with  priesthood  and  authority  to  act  and 
administer  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ;  that  he  would  confirm 


IS  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

their  testimony  to  the  gospel  with  signs  following,  as  in 
ancient  times,  giving  heavenly  instructions  in  regard  to  the 
work  of  organization  and  spreading  abroad  the  ancient  gospel 
and  kingdom  of  God  among  men.  Also,  the  angel  told  him 
that  God  was  about  to  fulfil  the  covenants  made  in  the 
Hebrew  scriptures  to  the  Jew  :  "That  the  land  of  Palestine 
was  to  be  restored  to  its  former  fertility,  and  the  Jew  was  to 
be  gathered  back  to  this  land  in  fulfillment  of  the  covenant 
which  God  had  made  with  their  forefathers,  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  as  well  as  all  the  prophets  who  had  foretold  of 
these  things,  and  that  all  these  things  were  to  take  place  in 
this  generation. 

Now  that  a  young  man,  or  rather  youth,  should  make 
claim  of  angel  visitation  in  our  day,  might,  or  might  not  be, 
a  strange  thing.  Joan  of  Arc  saw  visions;  Immanuel 
Swedenborg  has  impressed  thousands  with  the  testimony  of 
his  seership ;  and  visions  and  revelations,  as  we  have  pre- 
viously shown,  are  not  things  to  be  especially  wondered  at, 
more  especially  since  the  time  of  the  announcement  of  the 
work  begun  through  the  instrumentality  of  this  young  man. 

But  the  marked  differences  between  the  claim  for  their 
origin  and  proof,  as  well  as  the  results  with  which  his  work 
has  been  characterized,  and  the  work  and  character  of  the 
manifestations  wrought  through  Ann  Lee,  Swedenborg, 
Catholic  revelation  or  modern  spiritualistic  phenomenon, 
are  the  objective  points  to  which  we  wish  to  call  the  reader's 
attention. 

That  this  young  man  should  say  :  First  that  an  angel  had 
told  him  that  his  name  should  be  spoken  of  in  all  the  world 
both  for  good  and  for  evil,  might  be  the  result  of  wild  fanati- 
cism or  mental  hallucination,  and  if  unproved  by  subsequent 
events  would  certainly  justify  us  in  such  conclusion.  But 
what  are  the  facts  in  the  case  ?  While  men  said  that  this 
boy  would  never  be  known  beyond  his  own  immediate 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  19 

neighboshood,  history  already  for  half  a  century  records  the 
exact  fulfillment  of  the  prediction  of  this  illiterate  youth,  and 
the  friends  and  enemies  of  Joseph  Smith  and  "  Mormonism," 
are  already  in  every  part  of  the  globe. 

That  he  should  write  a  book*  giving  a  mythical  history  of 
two  or  three  separate  and  distinct  nations  or  peoples 
whose  progenitors  and  founders  emigrated  to  the  continent 
of  America,  beginning  as  far  back  in  human  history  as 
the  time  of  the  abatement  of  the  flood,  or  about  2200  years 
before  Christ,  and  another  just  prior  to  the  time  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar  and  the 
carrying  away  into  Babylonish  captivity  of  the  main  body  of 
Israelitish  dwellers  therein,  or  600  years  B.  C.,  and  still  of 
another  people  subsequent  to  the  captivity. 

These  things  might  not  of  themselves  prove   any  thing 

*  The  Book  of  Mormon  has  been  claimed  by  the  enemies  of 
Joseph  Smith  and  of  the  Latter  Day  work  to  be  a  revamped  story 
written  originally  by  one  Solomon  Spa  aiding,  etc.,  the  manuscript  of 
which  was  stolen  by  Smith  and  revamped  by  the  aid  of  Sidney 
Rigdon,  a  disciple  minister,  and  palmed  off  upon  a  half  million  of 
credulous  people  as  a  revelation  from  God. 

To  this  stupid  falsehood  there  is  not,  nor  has  there  been  attest 
or  shadow  of  reasonable  testimony. 

Born  of  the  imagination  of  some  one,  as  being  the  solution  of  the 
origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  this  story,  for  want  of  a  better  explana- 
tion, has  obtained  currency  almost  throughout  the  world,  and  popu- 
lar encyclopedial  literature  furnishes,  as  in  Jesus'  day,  stories  concern- 
ing the  origin  of  a  religion  and  a  book  that  opposes  priestcraft 
statements  substantiated  only  by  the  preface,  "  It  is  claimed,  It  is 
supposed,"  etc.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Sidney  Rigdon  never  saw  any- 
thing of  the  manuscript  of  the  B.  of  M.  until  a  printed  copy  was 
placed  in  his  hand.  Any  amount  of  testimony  of  men  now  living 
can  substantiate  this,  the  manuscript  of  the  original  Spaulding 
story,  having  been  by  the  Providence  of  God  found  in  Honolulu, 
Sandwich  Islands,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  James  H.  Fairchild, 
President  of  Oberlin,  Ohio,  College,  and  a  copy  of  which  can  be 
procured  by  addressing  the  Herald,  Lamoni,  Iowa. 


20  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

extraordinary  unless  other  evidence  was  had.  But  when 
we  take  in  our  hand  the  Bible  and  find  that  the  prophets  and 
seers  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  well  as  Jesus  Christ  himself 
and  his  apostles  in  the  New  Testament  plainly  foretold  off 
and  delineated  these  very  things  which  Mr.  Smith  has  in 
his  life  work  brought  about  and  fulfilled  to  the  very  letter, 
we  begin  to  see  room  for  just  grounds  for  the  claim  of  some- 
thing more  for  the  work  of  Joseph  Smith  and  what  the  world 
calls  "Mormonism"  than  can  be  claimed  by  any  other  modern 
prophet,  seer,  or  professed  revealer  of  the  supernatural. 

To  demonstrate  that  we  are  dealing  soberly  and  honestly 
as  well  as  truthfully  in  this,  it  will  be  necessary  to  open 
briefly  the  pages  of  that  which  orthodox  Jew  arvd  Gentile 
receive  as  authority,  the  Bible. 

ist,  We  stated  that  Joseph  Smith  startled  his  father's 
family  and  neighbors  by  these  statements  concerning  the 
angel's  message,  and  that  the  messenger  had  told  him  of  a 
book,  written  upon  plates  of  gold,  sealed  up  and  hidden  for 
preservation  in  the  ground  centuries  before  by  those  whom 
God  had  commanded  to  do  this,  and  for  purposes  which 
the  book  itself  reveals.  That  it  gave  an  account  of  the  first 
peoples  who  settled  this  continent,  etc.,  etc. 

Now  we  submit  that  this  was  a  strange  and  unlikely  story 
for  even  wise  men  to  tell,  and  the  fact  that  they  never  have 
told  any  such  story  is  proof  that  Smith  originated  it,  if  the 
angel  story  is  not  true. 

This  book  which  was  first  given  to  the  world  over  sixty 
years  ago  delivers  an  account  of  people  who  came  from  tha 
tower  of  Babel  at  the  time  that  God  confounded  their 
language. 

What  does  the  Bible  say? 

«« Therefore  is  the  name  of  it  called  Babel;  because  the  Lord  did 
there  confound  the  language  of  all  the  earth;  and  from  thence  did 
the  Lord  scatter  them  abroad  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth."  (GEN. 


OR,  A  SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  21 

America  is  a  part  of  "  the  earth." 

American  archaeological  research,  testimony  and  author- 
ity, confirm  these  statements. 

Concerning  the  second  emigration  to  this  land  as  affirmed 
in  the  book  of  Mormon,  we  call  the  Bible  reader's  attention 
to  the  forty-eighth  chapter  of  Genesis,  where  as  seen  in  the 
nineteenth  verse,  Jacob,  a  prophet  of  the  living  God,  blesses 
the  two  sons  of  his  own  favorite  son,  Joseph,  whom  his 
brethera  sold  into  Egypt ;  and  said  of  them : 

"The  angel  which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads,  and 
let  them  grow  into  a  multitude  in  the  midst  of  the  earth ;  and  of  the 
elder,  (Manasseh)  he  said,  he  also  shall  become  a  people,  and  he  also 
shall  be  great,  but  truly  his  younger  brother,  (Ephraim)  shall  be 
greater  than  he,  and  his  seed  shall  become  a  rmiltit'ude  of  nations" 
(GEN.  xlviii,  16-19.) 

Where,  save  in  the  remnant  of  one  of  Jacob  or  Israel's 
scattered  sons  or  tribes,  as  seen  in  the  multitude  of  Indian 
nations  which  Columbus  discovered  as  possessing  this  land, 
can  we  find  a  rational  explanation  or  fulfillment  of  this 
prophesy  ?  Certainly  not  in  Palestine,  the  land  covenanted 
to  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  for  there  was  not,  nor  is  there 
room  enough  in  that  land  for  its  fulfillment,  neither  does 
subsequent  history  record  its  fulfillment  there. 

Farther  evidence  and  light  is  obtained  by  reading  the 
forty-ninth  chapter,  beginning  with  the  first  verse  : 

"  And  Jacob  called  his  sons,  and  said,  Gather  yourselves  together, 
that  I  may  tell  you  what  shall  befall  you  in  the  last  days." 

Blessings  of  various  degrees  and  kind,  and  to  modern 
readers,  without  special  significance,  concerning  Israel's  sons 
or  tribes  are  here  spoken  of  prophetically,  but  when  we 
come  to  the  prophetic  blessing  of  Joseph  and  his  line,  as 
seen  in  the  twenty-second  verse,  we  have  this : 

"Joseph  is  a  fruitful  bough,  even  a  fruitful  bough  whose  brandies 

nm  ov«r  the  wall, Even  by  the  God  of  thy  father, 

who  shall  help  thee ;  and  by  the  Almighty,  who  shall  bless  thee  with 


22  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

blessings  of  heaven  above,  blessings  of  the  deep  that  lieth  under, 
blessings  of  the  breast  and  of  the  womb." 

' '  The  blessings  of  thy  father  have  prevailed  above  the  blessings  of 
my  progenitors  unto  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  everlasting  hills;  they 
shall  be  on  the  head  of  Joseph,  and  upon  the  crown  of  the  head  of  him 
that  was  separated  from  lus  brethren."  (22d  to  2;th  verses.) 

Here  it  will  be  seen  are  blessings  of  a  temporal  character 
of  greater  magnitude  than  was  promised  to  Abram  and 
Isaac,  Jacob's  progenitors — the  land  of  Palestine  (see  Gen. 
xiii,  14  to  1 8),  and  locates  it  through  this  prophesy 
as  "  Unto  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  everlasting  hills."  A 
choice  land,  blessed  "  with  the  blessings  of  heaven  above, 
and  of  the  deep  (seas,)  "  etc. 

To  Moses,  a  servant  and  prophet  of  God,  and  without  peer 
until  the  days  of  Christ,  was  this  same  thing  also  revealed, 
as  we  have  account  in  the  book  of  Deuteronomy,  Chap, 
xxxiii,  ist  and  i3th  to  i8th  verses  : 

"  And  this  is  the  blessing  wherewith  Moses,  the  man  of  God, 
blessed  the  children  of  Israel  before  his  death." 

"  And  of  Joseph  he  said,  Blessed  of  the  Lord  be  his  land^  for  the 
precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the  dew,  and  for  the  deep  that  coucheth 
beneath, 

"And  for  the  precious  fruits  brought  forth  by  the  sun,  and  for  the 
precious  things  put  forth  by  the  moon, 

"  And  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains,  and  for  the 
precious  things  of  the  lasting  hills, 

"  And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  earth  and  the  fullness  thereof," 
.  .  .  "let  the  blessing  come  upon  Joseph,  and  upon  the  top  of 
the  head  of  him  that  was  separated  from  his  brethren, 

"  His  g4ory  is  like  the  firstling  of  his  bullock,  and  his  horns  are 
like  the  horns  of  unicorns;  with  them  shall  he  push  the  people 
together  to  the  ends  of  the  earth;  and  they  are  the  ten  thousands  of 
Ephraim,  and  they  are  thousands  of  Manasseh." 

"  The  utmost  bound  of  the  everlasting  hills,"  as  described 
by  Jacob  and  Moses,  could  consistently  be  located  in  no 
other  place  upon  the  globe  than  upon  the  land  of  America, 
where,  as  upon  no  other  part  of  this  earth  can  these  pro- 


Ok,  A  SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  23 

phetic  declarations,  in  regard  to  the  favor  of  God,  bestowed 
upon  our  most  glorious  land  as  seen  in  "  The  precious  things 
brought  forth  by  the  sun,"  the  divergence  and  plentiousness 
of  fruit  and  food  produced  in  both  Americas,  "The  precious 
things  of  the  earth  and  fullness  thereof,"  "  And  the  precious 
things  put  forth  by  the  moon,"  the  action  of  tides,  cleansing 
our  great  coast  cities,  as  well  as  supplying  fish  and  food, 
etc.,  etc. 

"  And  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient  mountains,  and  for  the 
precious  things  of  the  everlasting  hills." 

See  reports  of  the  iron,  copper,  silver  and  gold,  as  taken 
already  from  its  "  Ancient  mountains  and  lasting  hills." 

Farther  biblical  evidence  also  is  found  in  the  book  of 
the  prophet  Hosea,  concerning  the  Book  of  Mormon,  as 
found  in  the  eighth  chapter,  and  verse  eleven  and  twelve  : 

"  Because  Ephraim  hath  made  many  a*ltars  to  sin,  altars  shall  be 
unto  him  a  sin," 

"  I  have  written  to  him  the  great  things  of  my  law,  but  they  are 
counted  as  a  strange  thing." 

The  word  of  God  and  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  as  delivered 
to  the  forefathers  of  these  Indian  tribes  of  America,  whose 
ancestors  came  from  the  land  of  Jerusalem  in  pursuance  of 
a  warning  from  God  to  their  father  Lehi  just  prior  to  its, 
destruction  in  the  days  of  Zedekiah,  the  King  of  Judah, 
and  recorded  in  the  Bc**?k  of  Mormon,  has  been,  and  is 
indeed  to-day,  "  counted  as  a  strange  thing." 

The  prophet  Ezekiel  also  has  given  us  evidence  concern*- 
ing  tins  book,  as  we  find  in  the  thirty-seventh  chapter^, 
particularly  iri  the  fifteenth  to  tw-enty- third  verses  : 

"  The  word  of  the  Lord  came  agaiij  unto  me,  saying, 

"Moreover,  thou  son  of  man,  take  thee  one  stick,  and  write  upon 
it,  for  Judah  and  for  the  children  of  Israel  his  companions :  then 
take  another  stick;  and  write  upon  it,  For  Joseph,  the  stick  of 
Ephraim,  and  for  all  the  house  of  Israel  his  companions : 

"  And  join  them  one  to  another  into  one  stick;  and  they  shall 
become  one  in  thine  hand. 


24  THE  SEER  OF  PALI. 

*'  And  when  the  children  of  thy  people  shall  speak  unto  thee,  say- 
ing, Wilt  thou  not  shew  us  what  thou  meanest  by  these? 

"Say  unto  them,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God;  Behold,  I  will  take 
the  stick  of  Joseph,  which  is  in  the  hand  of  Ephraim,  and  the  tribes 
of  Israel  his  fellows,  and  will  put  them  with  him,  even  with  the  stick 
of  Judah,  and  make  them  one  stick,  and  they  shall  be  one  in  mine 
hand. 

' '  And  the  sticks  whereon  thou  writest  shall  be  in  thine  hand  before 
thine  eyes. 

*'  And  say  unto  them,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God;  Behold,  I  will 
take  the  children  of  Israel  from  among  the  heathen,  whither  they  be 
gone,  and  will  gather  them  on  every  side,  and  bring  them  into  their 
own  land." 

Writings  were  anciently  called  sometimes  books,  and 
sometimes  sticks ;  i.  e.  written  parchment  fastened  upon 
sticks,  and  rolled  or  unrolled  as  they  read,  hence  the  term 
"  sticks  "  by  Ezekiel. 

Here  are  two  sticks  or  books,  one  called  the  stick  of 
Judah,  the  Bible,  and  another,  called  the  stick  of  Joseph, 
which  is  to  be  found  in  the  hand  of  Joseph's  son  whom,  we 
remember,  was  blessed  of  his  grandfather  Jacob,  and  in 
which  was  to  be  found  the  great  things  of  God's  law  and 
which  were  to  be  "  counted  a  strange  thing." 

And  when  the  people  enquire  what  these  things  mean, 
we  are  not  to  say  that  it  is  the  Spaulding  story,  but, — "  say 
unto  them,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God ;  Behold  I  will  take  the 
children  of  Israel  from  among  the  heathen,  whither  they  be 
gone  and  bring  them  on  every  side,  and  bring  them  into 
their  own  land,"  a  thing  that  the  Lord  has  been  moving 
nations  and  the  heavens  themselves  ever  since  the  coming 
forth  of  this  book  to  accomplish. 

Still  farther  evidence  is  found  in  the  "  Stick  of  Judah  ", 
or  Bible,  by  reference  to  the  book  of  the  prophesy  of  Isaiah, 
twenty-ninth  chapter,  (see  whole  chap.)  where  a  nation  or  a 
people  such  as  dwelt  at  Jerusalem  should  be  laid  against 
with  seige  and  fort  and  should  be  brought  low ;  also  visited 


OR,  A  SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  25 

with  thunder,  earthquake,  tempest,  etc.,  (see  sixth  verse,) 
and  the  speech  of  these  people  should  whisper  out  of  the 
dust,  as  literally  fulfilled  in  the  coming  forth  of  this  book  and 
the  record  that  it  gives  of  this  people. 

And  the  multitude  of  all  the  nations  that  fought  against 
Jerusalem — Gentiles — was,  as  to  prophets  and  seers,  to  be 
covered  and  hid. 

What  is  the  claim  of  these  Gentile  nations  since  the 
days  of  Christ?  No  more  prophets  or  seers;  no  longer 
needed,  we  are  told. 

"  And  the  vision  of  all  has  become  as  the  words  of  a  book  which 
is  sealed,  which  men  deliver  to  one  that  is  learned,  saying,  Read  this, 
I  pray  thee;  and  he  saith,  I  cannot;  for  it  is  sealed."  (Eleventh 
verse.) 

The  points  of  identification  and  comparison  between  the 
claims  of  Joseph  Smith  and  this  prophesy  of  Isaiah  are  these  : 

i. — Martin  Harris,  a  farmer  of  Palmyra,  takes  to  Prof. 
Anthon,  a  noted  scholar  and  linguist  of  New  York  City,  a 
transcript  or  copy  of  some  of  "the  words  of  the  book  "  for 
information  as  an  investigator.  Martin  Harris  told  the 
writer  in  person  that  the  conversation  had  with  Prof.  Anthon 
was  a  literal  fulfillment  of  the  scriptures  before  he  ever  knew 
it  was  in  the  Bible. 

2.— "The  book,"  (twelfth  verse),  not  the  words  of  the 
book,- — is  delivered  to  him  that  is  not  learned — Joseph 
Smitn, — saying,  "Read  this  I  pray  thee,"  and  he  saith, 
*'  I  am  not  learned  " — the  words  of  the  illiterate  youth  to 
the  angel. 

Then,  for  the  first  time  after  long  centuries  of  silence,  and 
in  spite  of  the  learned  ignorance  of  men,  who  said,  as  they 
still  say,  "that  God  no  longer  will  reveal  himself— that 
scripture  canon  was  closed  on  Patmos  " — God  speaks  as  he 
said  by  the  mouth  of  Isaiah  he  would  do ;  thus,  thirteenth 
verse: 


26  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA ; 

"Wherefore,  the  Lord  said,  Forasmuch  as  the  people  draw  near  me 
with  their  mouth  and  with  their  lips  do  honor  me,  but  have  removed 
their  hearts  from  me,  and  their  fear  toward  me  is  taught  by  the  pre- 
cepts of  men." 

Was  this  true  in  the  day  when  Smith  claimed  the  fulfill- 
ment concerning  the  book,  and  is  it  true  to-day  ?  Look  at 
the  fashion  and  form  and  empty  professional  and  liturgical 
worship  in  our  popular  churches  to-day.  Is  it  now,  and 
was  it  fifty  years  ago,  especially  true  that  our  "  fear  toward 
God  was  taught  by  the  precepts  of  men,"  such  as  Calvin's 
and  modern  defenders  of  a  religious  creed  that,  according 
to  Herbert  Spencer,  doomed  untold  millions  to  endless 
tortures  "  for  a  small  crime  which  they  never  committed  ?" 
Did  not  the  pictures  of  an  orthodox  hell  by  the  preacher 
prove  that  "  their  fear  toward  God  was  taught  by  the  pre- 
cepts of  men,"  as  Isaiah  said  it  would  be  at  the  time  of  the 
coming  forth  of  the  book  ?  Twelfth  verse. 

"  Therefore,  behold  I  will  proceed  to  do  a  marvelous  work  among 
this  people,  even  a  marvelous  work  and  a  wonder;  for  the  wisdom  <>f 
their  wise  men  shall  perish,  and  the  understanding  of  their  prudent 
men  shall  be  hid." 

How  will  God  do  or  work  ? 

We  can  answer  that  best  and  safest,  we  think,  by  asking 
how  he  has  worked  in  the  past. 

Amos  the  prophet  says,  (AMOS  iii,  7)  : 

"  Surely  the  Lord  God  will  do  nothing,  but  he  revealeth  his  secret 
unto  his  servants  the  prophets" 

And  as  the  fashionable  churches  had  long  since  recognized 
prophets  as  unnecessary  which  God  set  in  his  ancient 
church,  the  Lord  was  obliged  to  go  outside  of  men-made 
churches  in  order  to  keep  his  word  which  he  made  with 
Amos: 

"  For  the  wisdom  of  their  wise  men  shall  perish." 

Let  us  keep  this  in  mind  and  see  if  the  work  inaugurated 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  27 

through  Joseph  Smith  has  been  and  is  fulfilling  to-day  this 
prophecy. 

For  a  half  century  a  church  without  a  college  or  theo- 
logical school,  with  an  illiterate  ministry,  has  faced  every 
form  of  opposition  that  opposed  the  work  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians. The  ingenuity  of  men  and  of  devils  has  been  taxed 
to  invent  and  circulate  falsehoods  concerning  the  defenders 
of  this  religion  and  the  claims  of  Joseph  Smith. 

Hundreds  of  discussions  have  been  had,  and  no  matter 
what  others  have  done,  public  debate  and  open  ventilation 
of  their  claims  has  never  been  denied  in  any  part  of  the 
world,  nor  is  it  to-day  by  this  people. 

What  is  the  result  universally  and  always  of  these  discus- 
sions ?  Hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  have  been  baptized  at 
the  close  of  debate,  and  in  every  instance,  so  far  as  we  know, 
the  defenders  of  the  claims  of  Joseph  Smith  have  done  the 
baptizing. 

Is  this  evidence  ?  Nay,  is  it  not  proof  of  itself,  that  "  the 
wisdom  of  their  wise  men"  have  perished? 

Again,  seventeenth  verse  : 

4 '  Is  it  not  yet  a  very  little  while,  and  Lebanon  shall  be  turned  into  a 
fruitful  field,  and  the  fruitful  field  shall  be  esteemed  as  a  forest?" 

"  A  very  little  while  " — only  sixteen  years  after  the  coming 
forth  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  the  land  of  Palestine  that 
has  for  centuries  lain  a  desert  and  waste,  receives  at  the  hand 
of  heaven  the  long,  lost,  early  and  latter  rain,  as  is  now  too 
well  known  to  farther  refer  to,  and  is  a  most  important  testa- 
tor to  the  truthfulness  of  the  mission  of  the  Latter  Day  Seer. 

Again,  i8th  verse. 

"  And  in  that  day  shall  the  deaf  hear  the  words  of  the  book,  and 
the  eyes  of  the  blind  shall  see  out  of  obscurity  and  out  of  darkness." 

It  is  a  well-attested  fact  that  in  our  day,  and  that  through 
the  power  of  God  restored  to  His  church,  the  blind  have 
been  made  to  see,  the  lame  walk,  and  the  once  deaf  have 


28  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

been  made  to  "hear  the  words  of  the  book  "  of  which  the 
world  knows  so  little. 

"  The  meek  also  shall  increase  their  joy  in  the  Lord,  and  the  poor 
among  men  shall  rejoice  in  the  Holy  One  of  Israel."  (igth  verse.) 

Conscientious,  devoted,  and  spiritually-minded  people — 
thousands  of  them — have  increased  "  their  joy  in  the  Lord" 
through  the  teachings  of  this  book,  and  the  blessings  which 
the  latter  day  message  has  brought  to  their  creed- distracted 
souls. 

And  as  in  Jesus'  day,  when  John,  while  in  prison,  sent  to- 
him  for  evidences  of  his  mission,  Jesus  sent  back  word  that 
among  other  evidences  was  the  fact  that  "  the  poor  had  the 
gospel  preached  to  them."  Because  the  poor  are  among 
us,  and  are  "rejoicing  in  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,"  is  a 
cause  for  popular  disfavor,  as  in  Jesus'  day. 

22d  verse. 

"Therefore,  thus  saitn  the  Lord,  who  redeemed  Abraham,  con- 
cerning the  house  of  Jacob,  Jacob  (Israel)  shall  not  be  ashamed, 
neither  shall  his  face  now  wax  pale." 

At  the  time  of  the  coming  forth  of  this  book,  over  sixty 
years  ago,  the  Jew  was  despised,  and  had  few  favors  at  the 
hand  of  any  man,  even  in  free  America.  What  changes 
have  been  wrought  in  favor  of  Israel  \  How  astonishingly 
rapid  has  been  the  fulfillment  of  this  prediction  in  the  favor 
shown  to  the  Jew  in  most  of  the  countries  of  the  world ; 
his  advancement  politically  in  England,  France,  Germany, 
and  in  other  countries ;  his  rapid  accumulation  of  wealth, 
etc.,  etc. 

"They  also  that  erred  in  Spirit  shall  come  to  understanding,  and 
they  that  murmur  shall  learn  doctrine."  (24th  verse.) 

The  hypnotic  and  unbiblical  manifestations  exhibited  in 
modern  religious  revivals*  are  ample  proof  of  present  fulfill- 

*We  offer  the  following  newspaper  clippings :  At  a  meeting  of  the 
New  York  Medico-Legal  Society,  in  January,  the  Committee  on 
Hypnotism,  Dr.  E.  Morgan,  Jr.,  chairman,  reported  that  after  a  year's 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  29 

ment  of  this  part  of  Isaiah's  testimony  in  our  day — that 
those  well  meaning  people,  without  lawful  testimony  or 
guide,  in  seeking  after  supernatural  manifestations  from  God 
have  "  erred  in  spirit,"  and  the  object  of  the  latter  day 
restoration  is  to  bring  them  to  a  correct  understanding, 
through  instruction  of  the  promised  comforter,  even  the 
spirit  of  truth — to  those  who  are  willing  to  obey  the  ancient 
gospel. 

And  those  also  who  have  been  murmuring  at  the  incon- 
sistencies of  the  creeds  of  men,  have  been,  are  learning  and 
may  learn  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  by  obedience  to  his  law 
and  receive  according  to  his  own  promise  a  knowledge  of 
its  truthfulness. 

consideration  of  the  subject,  they  regarded  it  safe  to  say  that  the  fol- 
lowing facts  had  been  established  :  • 

First — Hypnosis  or  artificial  trance  sleep  is  a  subjective  phenome- 
non, and  may  be  self-induced  through  expectation  alone,  through 
fright,  by  religious  ecstasy,  or  any  enrapturing  emotion. 

Second — Hypnosis  is  not  in  itself  a  disease. 

Third — Hypnosis  is  recognized  in  three  stages — lethargy,  somnam- 
bulism, and  catalepsy.  The  transition  may  be  immediate. 

Fourth — Hypnotism  has  been  serviceable  in  medical  and  surgical 
practice,  both  as  a  therapeutic  agent,  and  in  some  cases  as  an  efficient 
and  safe  anaesthetic. 

Fifth — The  illusory  impressions  created  by  hypnosis  may  be  made  ta 
dominate  and  tyrannize  the  subsequent  actions  of  the  subject. 

THE   MUNCIE   REVIVAL — PEOPLE   STILL   CONTINUE   TO  FALL  IN  TRANCES 
AND   TO  TFTVL  BIG   STORIES   AFTERWARDS. 

MUNCIE,  IND.,  Fecember  15. — People  continue  to  fall  in  hypnotic 
style  by  the  dozen  at  the  great  revival  being  held  here  by  the  evange- 
list, Mrs.  Woodworth,  and  interest  is  growing  intensly.  Ministers  are 
here  from  several  points  in  Ohio  and  Illinois  taking  active  part  in  the 
meetings.  To-night,  Miss  Hughes,  who  was  in  a  hypnotized  state- 
seventy  hours,  told  her  second  vision  in  her  five  minutes'  talk.  She 
said  she  was  taken  '.o  I:.e:.  -en  by  an  angel.  Her  brother  met  her  at 
the  gate,  and  bade  her  cor:e  in,  but  the  Lord  said  not,  as  she  had 
great  work  on  erut"  "ngel  then  escorted  her  to  hell,,  where  she 


30  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

"They  compass  sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,"  said 
Jesus  of  the  ancient  Pharisee. 

Discarding  and  refusing  to  "abide  in  the  doctrine  of 
Christ,"  the  ingenuity  of  the  minister  and  the  church  trustee 
is  drawn  upon  to-day  to  sustain  the  church  against  the  dis- 
integrating forces  at  work,  and  a  sensational  emotional 
preacher  or  "evangelist  "  is  negotiated  with,  and  secured  at 
generally  a  considerably  higher  salary  than  his  professed 
Master  is  supposed  to  have  had,  and  one  "whose  latest 
method  and  "  success  "  in  "  converting "  people  is  that 
after  a  "  touching"  display  of  stage  method  and  oratory  an 

saw  a  young  man  she  knew  pitched  head  first  into  the  fiery  furnace. 
Mrs.  Emma  Richings,  who  was  hypnotized  twenty  hours,  said  she  saw 
the  gold  brick  paved  streets  with  white  marble  buildings.  While 
visiting  hell  she  saw  the  face  of  Mary  in  the  audience  before  her  there. 
She  was  escorted  on  her  journey  by  the  wings  of  an  eagle  and  begged 
to  mreain,  but  was  told  to  return  and  exclaim  to  all  the  world  what 
she  had  seen.  Both  the  women  saw  relatives  with  many  stars  in  their 
crowns. 

A  Pennsylvania  woman  has  gone  without  food  250  days,  and  she 
claims  to  see  things  taking  place  in  heaven. 

ONE    YEAR   IN   A   TRANCE — STRANGE   EXPERIENCE   OF  MISS  GRACE  GRID- 
LEY   OF    ILLINOIS. 

AMBOY,  ILL.,  February  5. — Miss  Grace  Gridley,  of  this  place,  has 
just  awakened  from  a  most  remarkable  and  prolonged  trance.  As  the 
result  of  religious  excitement,  she  went  into  a  comatose  condition 
nearly  a  year  ago,  and  continued  in  that  state  up  to  the  present  time, 
taking  no  food  during  all  that  time  except  a  little  in  liquid  form. 

NO   USE   FOR   HYPNOTISM. 

CINCINNATI,  OHIO,  Jan.  18,  1891. — Dr.  J.  W.  Prendergast,  health 
officer  of  this  city,  has  influenced  the  authorities  to  refuse  a  license  to 
a  lecturer  on  hypnotism  and  his  entertainments  have  been  stopped. 

Dr.  Prendergast  takes  the  ground  that  hypnotism,  when  applied 
indiscriminately,  is  injurious,  as  it  affects  the  mental  health  of  the  sub- 
ject. Upon  his  recommendation  the  council  has  passed  an  ordinance 
to  make  it  a  misdemeanor  to  give  hypnotic  exhibitions. 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  31 

invitation  to  those  impressed  to  "  come  forward  "  is  urgently 
made.  A  cordon  of  sympathetic  friends  is  placed  around 
himself  and  the  seeker  of  religion.  Then  a  circle  of  minis- 
ters, if  the  revival  is  "big"  enough  to  warrant  their  pres- 
ence, and  perhaps  another  wall  of  church  members  surround- 
ing all,  and  this  combination  or  battery  of  electric,  psychic 
or  hypnotic  force  is  started,  crowding  into  its  receptive 
victim  something  that  may  be  as  foreign  to  a  deliberate 
rational  conclusion  as  is  the  night  from  the  day,  and  the 
result  is  that  a  "  Holy  Ghost "  is  obtained  whose  influence 
and  manifestation  may  be  as  foreign  to  ancient  Gospel 
teaching  as  is  the  impressions  of  the  ordinary  professional 
hypnotist  or  mesmerist  upon  the  public  exhibition  platform, 
and  as  far  from  the  scriptures  or  the  teaching  of  the  "spirit 
of  truth"  as  light  is  from  darkness. 

We  turn  again  to  the  prophet  Zechariah,  ist  Chapter 
1 4th  and  I5th  verses  : 

"  So  the  angel  that  communed  with  me  said  unto  me,  Cry  thou,  say- 
ing, Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts  :  I  am  jealous  for  Jerusalem     .     . 
with  great  jealousy. 

"  I  am  very  sore  displeased  with  the  heathen  that  are  at  ease,  for  I 
was  but  a  little  displeased  and  they  helped  forward  the  affliction." 

God  was  displeased  with  Jerusalem  and  the  Jews  for  their 
rejection  of  Christ  and  the  prophets  ;  but  the  heathen  (Gen- 
tiles) have  "  helped  forward  their  affliction  "  by  their  long 
persecution  of  the  Jew. 

"Therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord:  I  am  returned  to  Jerusalem  with 
mercies ;  my  house  shalt  be  built  in  it,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  etc. 

"Cry  yet,  saying,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  my  cities  through 
prosperity  shall  yet  be  spread  abroad,  and  the  Lord  .  .  .  shall 
yet  choose  Jerusalem. 

'*  Then  I  lifted  up  mine  eyes  and  saw,  and  behold  four  horns. 

"  And  I  said  unto  the  angel  that  talked  with  me,  what  be  these? 
And  he  answered  me,  These  are  the  horns  which  have  scattered  Judah, 
Israel  and  Jerusalem, 

"  And  the  Lord  showed  me  four  carpenters. 


32  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

"  Then  said  I,  What  came  these  to  do?  And  he  spake,  saying,  These 
are  the  horns  which  have  scattered  Judah,  so  that  no  man  did  lift 
up  his  head,  but  these  are  come  to  fray  them,  to  cast  out  the  horns  of 
the  Gentiles  which  lifted  up  their  horn  over  the  land  of  Judah  to 
scatter  it."  i6th  to  I9th  verses. 

This  work  has  already  commenced  since  the  angels'  mes- 
sage to  Joseph  Smith — see  2d  Chapter,  ist  and  2d  verses. 

"  1  lifted  mine  eyes  again  and  looked  and  behold  a  man  with  a 
measuring  line  in  his  hand. 

"Then  said  I,  Whither  goest  thou?  And  he  said  unto  me,  To- 
measure  Jerusalem,  to  see  what  is  the  breadth  thereof  and  what  is  the 
length  thereof." 

Now,  what  was  the  use  of  measuring  Jerusalem,  while  the 
walls  now  standing  mark  exactly  its  measurement?  Let  us 
see  : 

"  And,  behold,  the  angel  that  talked  with  me  went  forth  and 
another  angel  went  out  to  meet  him, 

"  And  said  unto  him,  run,  speak  to  this  young  man  saying,  Jerusa- 
lem shall  be  inhabited  as  towns  without  walls  for  the  multitude  of  men 
and  cattle  therein/'  verses  3  and  4. 

Zechariah  here  predicts  the  final  restoration  of  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  the  gathering  of  the  Jews  that  had  been  cast  out 
by  the  horn  or  power  of  the  Gentile  nations.  Its  borders- 
were  to  be  enlarged  with  a  new  line  of  measurement  because, 
with  the  multitude  of  men  and  cattle  that  was  to  gather 
there,  they  would  necessarily  have  to  go  outside  of  the  pres- 
ent limits  of  the  wall  now  standing,  and  thus  Jerusalem  is  to 
"  be  inhabited  as  towns  without  walls." 

Notice  of  this  wonderful  and  miraculous  change  in  regard 
to  the  Jew  and  his  land  is  first  given  to  a  young  man  by  an. 
angel. 

While  Jerusalem  was  deserted  almost,  and  Palestine  a 
waste,  Joseph  Smith  declared  and  affirmed  till  the  day  of 
his  slaughter  that  the  angel  made  this  known  unto  him,, 
when  as  yet  he  knew  nothing  of  the  prophecy  as  recorded 
in  the  Bible.  Was  not  this  a  strange  prediction  for  a  youth 


OR,  A  SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  33 

to  make,  and  is  it  not  rationally  easier  to  believe  that 
God,  who  changes  not,  and  who  by  the  Holy  Ghost  inspired 
Zechariah  to  make  this  prediction,  sent  also  his  angel  to 
Joseph  Smith  to  fulfil  it,  rather  than  that  this  "  young  man  '* 
invented  it? 

David,  also  in  the  85  Psalm  gives  us  prophetic  light  upon 
this  same  subject,  seventh  verse  L 

"Shew  us  thy  mercy,  O  Lord,  and  grant  us  thy  salvation.  .  .  . 
"  I  will  hear  what  God  the  Lord  will  speak  :•  for  he  will  speak 
peace  unto  his  people,  and  to  his  saints :  but  let  them  not  turn  again 
to  folly. 

"  Surely  his  salvation  is  nigh  unto  them  that  fear  him:  that  glory 
may  dwell  in  our  land. 

"  Mercy  and  truth  are  met  together :  righteousness  and  peace  have 
kissed  each  other. 

"  Truth  shall  spring  out  of  the  earth;  righteousness  shall  look  down 
from  heaven. 

Yea  the  Lord  shall  give  that  which  is  good ;  and  our  land  shalt 
yield  her  increase,  7th  to  1 2th  verses. 

Here  then,  we  claim,  are  three  witnesses  to  the  Latter  Day 
work  which  have  been  upon  the  stand  for  over  a  half  century 
and  have  stood  the  fire  of  the  world's  cross  examination,  and 
all  attempts  at  impeachment  have  thus  far  proved  abortive. 

Truth  was  to  "spring  out  of  the  earth;"  what  is  truth? 
Jesus  said,  "Thy  word  is  truth."  The  word  of  God  or  great 
things  of  his  law  written  to  Ephriam  upon  this  continent, 
sprung  "  out  of  the  earth,"  when  the  sealed  book  was  given- 
to  this  generation  : 

"Righteousness  shall  look  down  from  heaven." 

The  angel  flight  to  Joseph  Smith  with  the  everlasting  gos- 
pel, in  fulfillment  also  of  Revelation  14  :6,  and  which  alone 
reveals  God's  righteousness,  gives  us  the  only  rational  inter- 
pretation that  can  be  placed  upon  this  prophecy. 

And  with  this  testimony  of  earth  and  of  heaven  comes 
the  third  witness : 

"And  our  land  shall  yield  her  increase.'* 


34  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

Also  in  the  5oth  Psalm,  ist  and  3d  to  6  verses: 

4  'The  mighty  God,  even  the  Lord,  hath  spoken,  and  called  the 
earth  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  unto  the  going  down  thereof." 

"Our  God  shall  come,  and  shall  not  keep  silence,  a  fire  shall  devour 
before  him,  and  it  shall  be  very  tempestuous  round  about  him." 

Here  is  a  description  of  the  Saviour's  coming,  as  given  by 
himself  and  his  apostles,  Peter  and  Paul.  Prior  to  his  com- 
ing he  told  his  disciples  : 

"This  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world  for 
a  witness,  and  then  shall  the  end  come."  (Matt.  24:14.) 

Although  men  have  said  God  would  no  more  speak, 
David  affirms  that  he  will  "not  keep  silence,"  but  that  "the 
heavens  shall  declare  his  righteousness."  Then  must  the 
Gospel  be  again  revealed.  And  he  is  also  to  "  call  to  the 
earth"  for  a  testimony,  why  ?  "That  he  may  judge  his  people." 

Could  God  consistently  judge  and  condemn  the  world  for 
rejecting  a  gospel  that  has  for  centuries  been  undergoing 
repairs  at  the  hands  of  theological  tinkers,  and  is  now  so  full 
of  patches  that  the  original  is  about  out  of  sight  ?  God  has 
called  to  the  heavens,  and  they  have  answered  by  the  angels 
flight, 

"And  to  the  earth." 

And  the  earth  has  answered,  and  yielded  her  treasure  of 
witness  to  the  truth  of  the  Bible  and  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  in  the  coming  forth  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Turn  also  to  Leviticus,  26th  Chapter,  3d  verse,  where  the 
Lord  warns  Israel,  through  Moses,  in  regard  to  their  future, 
thus : 

"If  ye  walk  in  my  statutes  and  keep  my  commandments,  and  do 
them: 

"  Then  will  I  give  you  rain  in  due  season,  and  the  land  shall  yield 
her  increase,  and  the  trees  of  the  field  shall  yield  their  fruit."  etc.  etc. 

But  if  they  refuse  to  hear,  the  Lord  says — 

"I  will  make  your  cities  waste  "  .  .  .  "  And  I  will  bring  the 
land  to  desolation"  .  .  .  "Then  shall  the  land  enjoy  her  Sab- 
baths, as  long  as  it  lieth  desolate,  and  ye  be  in  your  enemies'  land." 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  35 

But— 

"  If  they  shall  confess  their  iniquity,  and  the  iniquity  of  their 
fathers,  with  their  trespass  which  they  trespassed  against  me,  and  that 
also  they  have  walked  contrary  to  me "  .  .  .  "If  then  their 
uncircumcised  hearts  be  humbled,  and  they  then  accept  the  punish- 
ment of  their  iniquity"  .  .  .  "Then  will  I  remember  my  cove- 
nant with  Jacob,  and  also  my  covenant  with  Isaac",  und  also  my  cove- 
nant with  Abraham  will  I  remember;  and  I  u>ill  remember  the  land." 
(LEV,  xxvi,  3-4  and  31-42. 

How  literally  this  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled  upon  the 
race  of  the  Jews  and  upon  their  land,  we  all  know.  Jesus 
said  that  "  Jerusalem  should  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gen- 
tiles until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled."*  (LUKE 
xxi,  24.)  Paul  said — ROM.  xi,  i  to  25.)  "  Hath  God 

*The  latest  among  a  score  of  clippings  from  current  newspaper 
articles,  confirmatory  of  this  and  for  want  of  space,  must  suffice  as  the 
only  one  we  present  from  editorial  of  Boston  Globe,  three  days  ago, 
March  10. 

PALESTINE  FOR  THE  JEWS. — A  memorial  was  presented  to  the  pres- 
ident last  week,  asking  that  the  government  "use  their  good  offices 
and  influence  "  to  bring  about  an  international  conference  among  the 
European  powers  looking  to  the  restoration  of  Palestine  to  the  Jews. 

Palestine  has  attracted  unusual  interest  of  late,  which  interest  has 
been  much  stimulated  by  the  recent  persecution  of  the  Jews  in  Russia. 
There  seems  to  be  a  singular  concensus  among  biblical  scholars,  nota- 
ble among  whom  is  Prof.  Totten,  of  Yale,  who  declare  that  the  proph- 
ecies point  to  this  as  the  time  when  Palestine  is  to  be  restored  to  the 
Jews.  Somewhat  interesting  is  the  fact  that  Consul  Gillman,  the 
United  States  representative  at  Jerusalem,  in  speaking  of  the  new  rail- 
way from  Jerusalem  to  Jaffa,  quotes  the  prophecies  as  foretelling  the 
introduction  of  the  first  locomotives  into  Palestine  as  follows  : 

"  The  chariots  shall  be  with  flaming  torches  in  the  day  of  his  prep- 
aration. .  .  They  shall  seem  like  torches;  they  shall  run  like 
the  lightning."  (NAHUM  ii,  3  :4.") 

But  modern  statesmanship  is  not  usually  guided  by  prophecy.  The 
practical  fact  is  that  2,000,000  Jews  are  being  persecuted  and  driven 
out  of  Russia.  Palestine,  which  at  present  contains  but  about  400,000 
people,  would  easily  sustain  4,000,000.  It  is  a  country*  of  great  natu- 


36  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

cast  away  his  people  ?"  God  forbid  !  but — "  that  blindness 
in  part  is  happened  to  Israel  until  the  fulness  of  the  Gen- 
tiles be  come  in  "  .  .  .  <rand  then  all  Israel  shall  be 
saved.""  How?  By  the  preaching  of  orthodox  ministers?* 
Oh  no!  but  "as  it  is  written1'  and  as  the  angel  told  Joseph 
Smith,  and  in  no  other  way.  The  cessation  of  Gentile 
oppression  in  Jerusalem  will  be  the  fulfillment  of  this  proph- 
ecy in  part  at  least,  and  the  rejection  of  the  Gospel  by  this 

ral  resources,  now  languishing  under  the  dead  weight  of  the  Turk. 
Only  recently  has  a  railway  been  introduced,  and  electric  lighting  and 
other  modern  appliances  have  been  started  in  Jerusalem.  Fifty  new 
houses  have  been  built  within  the  past  year. 

The  time  certainly  seems  to  be  opportune  from  one  point  of  view, 
for  the  banished  Jews  to  re-enter  the  land  of  their  fathers  and  build  up 
a  modern  civilization.  Of  course  they  would  require  generous,  and 
perhaps  long-continued  assistance,  and  perhaps  this  would  be  forth- 
coming. All  that  the  Christian  powers  of  Europe  could  do  would  be 
to  guarantee  protection. 

But  any  proposition  on  the  part  of  the  "  powers  "  to  send  the  Jews 
into  Palestine  and  shut  them  up  there  by  force  is  out  of  place  when 
dealing  with  so  intelligent  a  people.  Like  the  proposition  to  4l  send 
the  Africans  back  to  Africa,"  it  is  a  piece  of  impertinent  assumption 
which  belittles  and  degrades.  The  Jews  are  already  immigrating  into 
Palestine  very  rapidly.  The  latest  consular  reports  from  Palestine 
present  a  very^  flattering  showing  of  the  resources  of  that  country. 
Cereals,  fruits,  vegetables  and  the  vine  flourish  there,  the  orange  and 
the  olive  being  especially  prolific.  All  the  country  wants,  it  is  said,  is 
the  introduction  of  manufacturers,  and  Palestine  may  yet  be  aroused 
from  oriental  slumber  to  take  a  high  rank  among  the  prosperous  and 
progressive  nations  of  the  earth. 

*Rabbinowitz  and  other  converted  Jews  keep  themselves  aloof  from 
all  the  creeds,  pointing  their  followers  to  none  of  the  so-called  Chris- 
tian churches — whose  divisions  as  well  as  uncertainties  of  doctrine  so 
little  conform  to  Bible  teaching.  In  connection  with  this  read  Jer. 
i6th,  1 4 to  21  especially  the  igth. — "Oh  Lord,  my  strength  and  my 
fortress,"  .  .  .  "The  Gentiles  shall  come  unto  thee  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  and  shall  say,  Surely  our  fathers  have  inherited  lies 
and  vanity,  and  things  wherein  there  is  no  profit." 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  S>'  .  fZ  GIFTS.  17 

•Gentile  nation  will  be  the  signal  of  God  to  them  that  their 
time  is  "  fulfilled/'  and  that  "  upon  whom  this  stone  (Christ) 
shall  fall,  it  shall  grind  him  to  powder."  (MATT,  xx,  i&),  for? 

"  The  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  with  his  mighty 
angels  in  flaming  fire,  taking  vengeance  upon  those  that  know  not 
•God  and  that  obey  not  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
(II  THES.  i,  7  :8.) 

The  Jew  rejected  this  "stone,"  fell  upon  it,  and  was  bro- 
ken and  scattered  as  the  prophets,  and  Jesus  predicted, 
This  broken  remnant  are  to  be  gathered  again. 

*'  But  upon  whom  this  stone  shall  fall  it  shall  grind  him  to  powder™ 

Let  then  this  generation  beware  and  be  warned  by  the 
rational  message  of  the  servants  of  God  in  these  last  days, 
for  if  the  blood  of  all  God's  servants,  "  from  the  blood  of 
righteous  Abel  unto  the  blood  of  Zacharias,  son  of  Barachias, 
whom  they  slew  between  the  temple  and  the  altar"  (MATT. 
xxiii,  35),  was  required  at  the  hand  of  that  generation  for 
rejection  of  the  prophets  and  himself,  what  shall  we  say  of 
this  Gentile  generation  of  blind  followers,  of  blind  leaders  if 
they  reject  not  only  the  teachings  of  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  but  Christ  and  his  apostles,  and  persecute,  slander 
and  slay  the  servants  whom  he  has  sent  to  >warn  them  ? 
And  also,  "if  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,"  nei- 
ther Christ  nor  the  apostles,  neither  will  they  *  repent "  or 
"be  persuaded,  though  one  rose  from  the  dead"  (LUKE  xvi, 
3 1 ),  or  if  all  their  departed  friends  return  from  the  "  spirit 
world."  This  is  our  experience  at  least. 

Thus,  while  the  world  is  pointing  the  finger  of  scorn  at 
Joseph  Smith  and  the  defenders  of  his  claims,  God,  through 
his  holy  and  unchangeable  word,  points  with  the  finger  of 
unerring  certainty,  the  lover  of  truth,  to  the  fulfillment  of 
the  "  sure  word  of  prophecy  "  as  culminative  proof  of  the 
mission  of  the  Palmyra  Seer. 

Again,  Joseph  Smith  claimed  to  be  the  chief  instrument 
in  the  hand  of  God  in  the  restoration  of  the  church  and 


38  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA; 

kingdom  (synonymous  terms)  of  God  to  earth  in  our  clay. 

Did  he  in  this  speak,  as  did  his  Master  when  on  earthr 
with  authority  of  a  commission  from  God,  or  did  he  assume 
that  which  facts  and  scripture  will  not  warrant  ?  His  tradi- 
tions were,  until  the  angel  visit  dispelled  them,  those  which 
the  priests  had  taught  and  still  teach,  that  all  the  churches 
evangelical,  constitute  the  church  of  God.  Let  us  see  "  To- 
the  law  and  to  the  testimony." 

In  the  book  of  the  prophet  Daniel,  second  chapter,  we 
have  the  interpretation  of  the  king  of  Babylon's  dream  con- 
cerning that  which  God  showed  him  should  "  be  in  the  latter 
days"  (28th  verse)  and  in  the  interpretation  of  this  dream 
of  the  image  Daniel  says,  44th  verse  : 

"  And  in  the  days  of  these  kings  shall  the  God  of  heaven  set  up  a 
kingdom  which  shall  never  be  destroyed." 

This  kingdom,  or  stone,  as  it  is  called  in  the  34th  and 
35th  verses,  which  was  to  smite  the  image  on  its  feet, 
"  became  a  great  mountain  and  filled  the  whole  earth," 
(35th  verse). 

Now  this  could  not  reasonably  compare  with  a  mountain 
of  earth  and  of  stone,  for  such  a  mountain  must  have  cor- 
responding valleys  to  make  it  such,  consequently  could  not 
as  such  fill  the  earth. 

The  prophet  Micah  gives  us  explanation  in  the  4th  chap- 
ter of  his  prophecy,  ist  verse  : 

"  But  in  the  last  days  "  (chronology  the  same  as  Daniel)  "  it  shall 
come  to  pass,  that  the  mountain  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  shall  be  es- 
tablished in  the  top  of  the  mountains,"  etc.,  etc. 

What  is  the  house  of  the  Lord  ?  Paul  tells  us  in  i  Tim. 
iii.  15,  that  it  "is  the  church  of  the  living  God."  Daniel 
tells  us  that  in  the  days  of  these  kings — not  the  days  of 
Caesar's  government,  when  as  yet  neither  the  legs  nor  toes 
of  Nebuchadnezzar's  image  were  in  existence — should  "  the 
God  of  heaven  set  up  a  kingdom."  And  if  "the  church  of 
the  living  God  "  and  of  Jesus  Christ  was  the  kingdom  of 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  39 

God  in  their  day,  as  they  taught,  and  has  gone  into  the 
wilderness  (see  Rev.  xii,  1-6) — if  this  kingdom  or  church 
suffered  violence,  and  the  violent  have  taken  it  by  force,  as 
Jesus  said  they  would  do,  or,  in  other  words,  destroy  from 
the  face  of  the  earth  the  ancient  church  organization 
(which  we  know  has  been  done),  and  if  Daniel  and  Micah's 
prophecy  is  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  last  days,  we  shall  have  to 
know  that  the  original  pattern  which  God  gave  of  church 
government  as  shown  in  the  Bible  will  have  to  be  restored 
to  earth  again  through  some  means  or  somebody. 

Again.  When  asked  by  his  disciples  what  should  be  the 
sign  of  his  second  coming,  he  replied,  "  this  gospel  of  the 
Kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world  for  a  witness" 
(Matt,  xxiv,  3,  4,  14.) 

The  kingdom,  then,  was  among,  or  in  the  midst  of  them,, 
the  Jews.  Its  officers  were  as  God  and  Christ  placed  them 
in  it :  first,  apostles ;  second,  prophets,  with  spiritual  gifts,, 
etc.,  etc.'  Its  reproduction  in  our  day  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  "the  weak  things  of  this  world"  is  evidence- 
that  God  is  working  through  former  methods,  and  in  his> 
own  unchangeable  way. 

This  gospel  was  also  to  be  as  Paul  said  (Rom.  1-16)%. 
"  The  power  of  God  unto  Salvation."  But  Paul  also  pre- 
dicted that  "  in  the  last  days  perilous  times  should  come." 

"Men  should  be  lovers  of  themselves,"  .  .  .  and 
"  having  a  form  of  Godliness,  but  denying  the  power  thereof" 
(II  Tim.  iii,  i  to  6.) 

Has  time  confirmed  or  denied  the  truth  of  Paul's  predic- 
tion? "No  more  Apostles,  No  more  prophets,"  says  the 
world ;  'No  more  the  gifts  of  the  gospel.'  Its  power  denied 
by  popular  ministers,  as  Paul  said  it  would  be  in  the  last  days*. 

Who  was  right  in  this,  and  in  agreement  with  the  word  of 
God  ?  Smith,  or  the  men  that  have  since  persecuted  him 
and  his  adherents  ? 


/4D  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA; 

Again,  in  the  revelation  which  John  was  given  on  Patmos, 
in  which  history  for  centuries  was  unrolled  to  his  gaze,  he 
saw  concerning  things  which  were  to  transpire  after  his  day — 
"Another  angel  fly  in  the  midst  of  heaven,  having  the  ever- 
lasting gospel  to  preach  unto  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth, 
,  and  to  every  nation,  and  kindred,  and  tongues,  and  people, 
"  Saying  with  a  loud  voice,  Fear  God,  and  give  glory  to 
I  him;  for  the  hour  of  his  judgment  is  come.     (Rev.   xiv, 

6:7.) 

Have  we  not  shown  that  that  Gospel  which  "  is  the  power 
of  God  "  was  not  here  ?  Hence  the  necessity,  of  its  restora- 
tion, and  under  circumstances  that  will  make  good  the  word 
of  God,  and  prove  itself  to  be  according  as  "  it  is  written  ?" 

Who  claims  a  gospel  restoration  at  the  hands  of  an  angel 
but  Mr.  Smith  ?  Does  the  Pope,  or  any  of  the  protestant 
:  reformers? 

Note  also  this  message  was  to  be  delivered  in  "  the  hour 
of  God's  judgment."  While  the  world  was  crying  "  peace 
and  safety,"  Joseph  Smith,  by  proclamation  to  all  the  world, 
and  to  kings  and  rulers,  declared  the  message  of  God  that, 
"  after  the  testimony  of  his  servants  should  come  the  testi- 
mony of  destruction  by  storms  and  tempest  and  vivid  light- 
ning " — by  war  in  our  own  lands,  as  well  as  in  foreign  coun- 
vtries.* 

What  was  *the  pious  and  popular  ministers  doing  all  the 
while  but  crying  "  peace  and  safety ;"  that  the  millennium 

*"The  judgments  of  God  are  almost  ready  to  burst  upon  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  .  .  .  And  now  I  am  prepared  to  say  by  the 
authority  of  Jesus  Christ  that  not  many  years  shall  pass  away  before 
the  United  States  shall  present  such  a  scene  of  bloodshed  as  has  not 
a  parallel  in  the  history  of  our  nation." — Letter  of  Joseph  Smith  to  N. 
.Seaton,  of  New  York,  Jan.  5,  1833. 

"  Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord  concerning  the  wars  that  will  shortly 
•  come  to  pass,  beginning  at  the  rebellion  of  South  Carolina,  which  will 
veventually  terminate  in  the  death  and  misery  of  many  souls.  The 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  41 

was  to  come,  if  at  all,  by  the  preaching  of  the  various  gos- 
pels they  had  formulated,  and  through  them  the  world  was 
to  be  converted  to  God,  etc.,  etc  ,  and,  like  their  predeces- 
sors in  Christ's  day,  paying  little  attention  to  the  warning  of 
God's  servants  and  prophet,  save  by  endeavor  to  throw 
dust  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  and  crying,  "  Beware  of  false 
prophets." 

Let  us  see  farther  : 

"  Jesus  said,  As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah,  so  shall  it  be  in  the  day 
of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man." 

How  was  it  then  ? 

Did  God  destroy  the  people  without  warning?  No,  for 
**  he  doeth  nothing,  save  he  revealeth  his  secret  unto  his 
servants  the  prophets." 

days  will  come  that  war  will  be  poured  out  upon  all  nations  beginning 
at  that  place,  for  behold  the  Southern  States  shall  be  divided  against 
the  Northern  States,  and  the  Southern  States  will  call  on  other 
nations,  even  the  nation  of  Great  Britain,  as  it  is  called,  and  they 
shall  also  call  upon  other  nations  in  order  to  defend  themselves 
against  other  nations,  and  thus  shall  war  be  poured  out  upon  all 
nations.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  after  many  days,  slaves  shall  rise 
up  against  their  masters,  who  shall  be  marshalled  and  disciplined  for 
war.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  also,  that  the  remnants*  who  are  left 
of  the  land  shall  marshal  themselves  and  shall  become  exceeding 
angry,  and  shall  vex  the  Gentiles  with  a  sore  vexation ;  and  thus  with 
the  sword  and  by  bloodshed  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  shall  mourn, 
and  with  famine,  and  plague,  and  earthquakes,  and  the  thunder  of 
heaven,  and  the  fierce  and  vivid  lightnings  also,  shall  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth  be  made  to  feel  the  wrath  and  indignation  and  chasten- 
ing hand  of  an  Almighty  God  until  the  consumption  decreed  hath 
made  a  full  end  of  all  nations,  that  the  cry  of  the  saints  and  the 
blood  of  the  saints  shall  cease  to  come  up  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of 
Sabbaoth  from  the  earth,  to  be  avenged  of  their  enemies.  Wherefore 
stand  ye  in  holy  places,  and  be  not  moved  until  the  day  of  the  Lord 
come;  for  behold  it  cometh  quickly,  saith  the  Lord.  Amen." — Rev- 
elation given  through  Joseph  Smith  in  the  year  1832. 

*Indians. 


42  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA; 

Could  God  consistently  bring  wholesale  catastrophe  upon 
the  world  that  had  been  blinded  6y  priestcraft  and  ecclesi- 
astical tyranny  for  centuries  without  intelligent  warning? 
Oh,  no  !  Then,as  in  the  days  of  Noah,  he  must  send  a 
prophet  to  warn  the  world. 

The  world  said  that  the  Gospel  was  to  be  preached  to 
convert  it  to  Christ,  Jesus  said  that  the  Gospel  which  was 
then  preached,  was  again  to  be  preached  as  a  witness  and 
was  to  be  the  "avant  courier  "  or  sign  of  his  second  advent. 

In  Matt,  xx,  we  have  also  an  account  of  prophecy  con- 
cerning the  kingdom  of  God  in  parable  by  the  Saviour, 
where  at  the  first,  third,  sixth  and  ninth  hour  of  the  day, 
servants  of  God  are  sent  out  into  the  vineyard,  or  field, 
which,  he  tells  us,  "is  the  world";  and  lastly,  at  "about" 
the  eleventh  hour — just  before  the  close  of  day,  or  time  of 
work  or  labor — he  calls  again  servants — not  called  of  them- 
selves, nor  of  their  fellow-servants.  The  leader  will  per- 
ceive that  there  are  hours  in  the  day,  or  world's  history,  in 
which  no  servants  are  called. 

This  is  confirmed  also  in  Luke  xiv,  12  to  24,  where,  in 
contradiction  of  the  popular  clamor,  that  God  sends  no- 
more  servants,  ("  his  servants  the  prophets,"  to  reveal  his 
mind  and  will),  Jesus  here  says  that  "a  certain  man  made 
a  great  supper  and  bade  many,"  "  and  sent  his  servant,  at 
supper  time"  about  the  close  of  the  day,  etc. 

This  supper  evidently  refers  to  the  wedding  feast,  as  we 
read  in  Rev.  xix,  7-9,  and  called  "  the  marriage  supper  of 
the  Lamb."  (pth  verse.) 

Also  referring  to  Matt,  xxv,  i,  2,  which  also  proves  that 
the  kingdom  will  be  here  upon  earth  when  the  Saviour 
comes;  and  that  the  bride — the  church — will  go  out  to 
meet  him;  which  disposes  of  the  claim  of  Advents  and 
others — that  he  is  going  to  bring  the  bride  with  him,  foolish 
virgins  and  all ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  kingdom  which 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  43 

Daniel  saw  will  not  be  set  up  until  after  his  coming,  for 
Daniel,  you  remember,  says  that  "in  the  days  of  these 
kings  " — not  after  they  are  destroyed — "  shall  the  God  of 
Heaven  set  up  a  kingdom,"  etc. 

And  now  to  the  third  and  last  witness  to  the  Latter  Day 
Mission. 

Joseph  Smith  stood  before  the  world  with  his  brethren 
and  boldly  made  this  proposition  :  That  no  matter  what  a 
man  or  woman  might,  or  might  not  think  of  him ;  if  they 
would  repent  of  sin,  be  baptized  for  the  remission  of  them, 
receive  the  interposition  of  hands  of  the  eldership  of  the 
church  that  God  himself  would  reveal  to  them  through  the 
ancient  "  comforter  "  the  truthfulness  of  his  mission.* 

The  fact  that  though  the  Pharisees  perceived  that  Peter 
and  John  were  ignorant  and  unlearned  men,  it  did  not  pre- 
vent their  boldness  when  they  said, 

"  And  we  are  his  witnesses  of  these  things,  as  also  is  the  Holy 
Ghost  which  God  gives  to  them  that  obey  him."  (ACTS  v,  31 :  32. 

Has  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  upon  men  and 
women  in  our  day,  even  the  spirit  of  truth,  as  in  contradis- 
tinction to  other  spirits  ? 

Does  it  testify  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  the  fulfillment  in  our 
day  of  that  which  the  prophets  and  himself  predicted  ?  Has 
the  power  of  Godliness  which  the  world  denies  been  con- 
firmed upon  men  in  our  day  ?  Let  the  sufferings  and  testi- 
mony of  thousands  of  honest  and  intelligent  men  and  women 
who  have  been  driven  from  their  homes,  ostracized,  slan- 
dered, hated,  persecuted,  and  some  of  them  slain  for  the 

*Assuming  this  to  be  true  is  to  account  for  the  trouble  the  U.  S. 
Government  has  had  and  is  having  with  apostates  from  the  primitive 
"  Mormon"  faith  in  the  Territory  of  Utah.  They  know  more  of  both 
the  religion  of  God  and  of  the  Devil  than  do  the  people  that  are  trying 
to  regulate  them.  Hence,  the  difference  of  opinion  among  "  Gentiles" 
as  to  their  treatment,  and  the  difficulty  of  solution  of  "the  Mormon 
problem"  in  Utah. 


44  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

word  of  God  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ  make  answer 
to  thoughtful  minds. 

God  is  unchangeable,  and  is  known,  if  revealed  at  all,  by 
his  unchangeability. 

We  summon  then  to  the  truth  of  the  mission  of  Joseph 
Smith  and  of  the  latter  day  work,  the  same  number  and 
kind  of  witnesses  as  did  Peter  in  proof  of  the  mission  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  points  of  identity  so  strongly  marked  as  to 
leave  intelligent  and  honest  seekers  after  truth  without 
excuse. 

Evidences  of  supernatural  character  were  had  then  and 
are  had  now  for  what  they  may  be  worth.  The  vision  upon 
the  mount  was  one. 

When  John  was  in  prison  he  sent  to  Jesus  for  evidence  of 
his  mission.  "Tell  John,"  said  Jesus,  how  that  "  the  blind 
see  the  lame  walk,  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised,  and 
the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them." 

The  faith  to  raise  the  dead  is  not  claimed  by  this  people. 
Tradition  and  opposition  might  alone  prevent,  for  if  Jesus 
could  do  no  mighty  works  in  his  own  country  because  of 
their  unbelief,  what  ought  in  reason  to  be  demanded  of  his 
weak  servants  after  centuries  of  tradition  that  these  things 
are  done  away,  and  the  constant  pressure  of  a  faithless  gen- 
eration of  sign  seekers  ?  But  that  the  gifts  of  the  Gospel  are 
among  this  people,  and  do  follow  the  believer  in  the  ancient 
gospel,  is  as  well  proven  as  were  the  miracles  in  Jesus'  day, 
through  himself  and  his  disciples. 

2d.  Jesus'  mission  was  outlined  centuries  before  by  the 
prophets. 

The  work  of  Joseph  Smith  is  j.ust  as  clearly  delineated  in 
both  old  and  new  testament  scriptures,  as  we  have  conclu- 
sively shown,  and  himself  and  his  brethren  go  before  the 
world  with  this  unanswerable  argument  "  it  is  written." 

The  rising  of  the  day  dawn  in  the  heart  of  the  obedient  is 


OR,  A  SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  45 

as  much  a  fact  to  those  who  obey,  as  in  Peter's  day.  The 
judgment  being  satisfied,  the  honest  impulse  of  a  man's 
life  should  force  to  action,  for,  "with  the  heart  man 
believeth  unto  righteousness." 


CHAPTER  III. 

"Beware  of  false  prophets  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's  clothing-,, 
but  inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves,  Ye  shall  know  them  by  their 
fruits."  (Matt,  vii,  15:  16.) 

Jesus  said  again,  "  If  a  man  come  in  his  own  name,  him 
ye  will  receive."  The  failures  of  the  adventists  does  not 
hinder  their  popularity.  False  prophets  are  always,  as  a 
rule,  popular. 

"  Woe  unto  you  when  all  men  shall  speak  well  of  you!  for  so  dicD 
their  fathers  to  the  false  prophets."  (LuKE  vi,  26.) 

The  Lord  said  through  Moses,  Deut.  18,  21-22,  that  the 
test  of  a  false  or  a  true  prophet  was  that  the  thing  did,  or 
did  not  come  to  pass,  of  which  they  prophesied. 

Joseph  Smith  said  60  years  ago  that  the  churches  organ- 
ically were  all  wrong.  They  said  we  are  all  right. 

He  was  the  principal  instrument  of  God  in  forming  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  in  these  last  days.  It  has  not 
been  obliged  to  change  its  doctrines  or  church  government 
in  over  half  a  century,  nor  will  it  have  to,  as  it  is  organized 
after  the  perfect  pattern.  On  the  contrary,  the  doctrines 
and  forms  of  popular  church  government  have  been  under- 
going repairs  from  that  day  till  this. 

Joseph  Smith  said  the  gifts  of  the  gospel  were  to  be  had 
by  the  true  believer  as  in  Christ's  day.  The  religious  teachers 
made  ridicule  of  this  claim,  that  they  were  done  away,  etc, 
Many  of  them  are  now  crawling  around  to  the  position 
assumed  by  Smith,  and  ministers  and  women  are  laying  ore. 
hands  for  healing,  etc.  "Beware  of  false  prophets."' 


46  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

Joseph  Smith  said  that  the  Jew  was  to  obtain  favor  with 
God  and  man.  The  world  said,  no.  Who  was  right? 

He  prophesied  of  the  increase  of  war,  earthquakes,  tem- 
pest, tornadoes  ;  that  the  sea  should  heave  itself  beyond  its 
bounds,  etc.  The  world  said  tornadoes  were  local  and  con- 
fined to  the  torrid  zones ;  that  the  crust  of  the  earth  was 
thickening  and  earthquakes  must  diminish.  Look  at  the 
history  of  tidal  waves,  cyclones  in  northern  climes,  history 
of  earthquakes  as  compared  with  former  times,  and  "  Beware 
of  false  prophets." 

Reader,  are  you  disgusted  with  the  form  and  fashion  of  a 
Godless  and  powerless  religion  ?  Are  you  tempted  to  leave 
your  church  home  in  search  of  truth  and  rest?  Take  heed 
that  no  man  deceive  you.  Beware  of  seducing  spirits. 
Beware  of  false  prophets  that  come  to  you  in  sheep's  cloth- 
ing, and  remember  this  also  that  a  wolf  has  certain  points  of 
similarity  when  covered  with  the  outward  appearance  or 
clothing  of  a  sheep,  and  may  deceive  you.  And  if  even 
spirits  with  sign  and  unexplainable  wonder — purporting  to 
be  the  spirit  of  your  mother  that  lived  and  died  in  the  faith 
of  Jesus  Christ,  tell  you  that  he  is  not  what  he  claimed  to 
be — not  what  the  prophets  said  of  him  :  That  he  is  not  "  the 
only  name  given  under  heaven  or  among  men  whereby  we 
must  be  saved."  That  he  was  mistaken  when  he  said  :  "No 
man  cometh  unto  the  father  but  by  me."  "  I  am  the  way, 
etc."  That  ignore  his  church  government  and  the  blessings 
of  its  discipline,  that  instead  of  signs  following  the  believer 
in  a  gospel  of  faith,  repentance  and  baptism,  and  a  holy  life, 
etc.,  etc.,  that  signs  go  before  the  unbeliever,  that  about  all  the 
Holy  Ghost  there  is,  is  in  the  revelations  brought  to  you 
through  mediums  of  various  grades  of  character,  from  your 
dead  friends,  that  deny  the  kingship  or  special  authority  of 
Jesus  Christ,  that  ignore  his  law,  and  laugh  at  the  absudity 
of  his  command  to  baptize  anybody.  Beware  of  them,  and 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  47 

don't  forget  the  absurdity  of  their  claim  that  they  are  not 
only  his  best  friend,  but  an  exponent  of  his  doctrines. 

You  will  be  called  foolish  and  uncharitable,  I  know,  by 
those  whom  they  have  deceived  by  fair  speech  and  honeyed 
and  flattering  promise,  but  don't  forget  this  earnest  warning 
and  beware  of  seducing  and  anti-Christ  spirits. 

Sixty  years  ago  the  world  was  lying  in  darkness,  woven  by 
priestcraft  and  traditions,  into  which,  since  the  days  of 
•Constantine,  apostacy  from  the  government  of  God  and 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  had  led  them. 

Centuries  had  rolled  away  of  Catholic  supremacy  and  domi- 
nation in  and  regulation  of  men's  ideas  of  God  and  of  relig- 
ion. The  moral  light  of  the  reformation  left  men  freer,  but 
still  under  the  shadow  of  the  traditions  and  doctrines  of  the 
church  of  Rome,  and  many  were  looking,  as  said  Elder  Rob- 
inson to  the  Plymouth  flock  on  their  embarkation  to  the  wilds 
of  America,  "  for  more  light  to  break  forth  out  of  the  word 
of  God."* '  And  John  Wesley  had  wrote  and  sung, 

"  Almighty  God  of  love 
Set  up  the  attracting  sign, 
And  summon  whom  thou  dost  approve 
As  messengers  divine."  t 

*See  farewell  sermon  of  Elder  John  Robinson,  pastor  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  upon  their  embarkation  at  Deltham,  .A.  D.  1620, — History  of 
Massachusetts.  , 

tjohn  Bovee  Dods,  in  his  book  entitled  "Spirit  Manifestations 
Examined  and  Explained,"  in  which  he  undertakes  to  refute  Judge 
Edmonds,  upon  pages  119-20,  says:  "I  do  not  mean  new  revelations 
of  any  doctrinal  truth  as  additions  to  what  are  already  in  the  Bible, 
but  a  revealment  of  the  true  meaning  intrinsically  involved  in  those 
doctrines  already  recorded  in  the  Scriptures,  and  concerning  which  the 
whole  Christian  world  are  divided  and  split  up  into  sects.  .  .  All  these 
•doctrines  must  be  made  to  harmonize  with  nature,  with  reason,  with 
the  soundest  principles  of  mental  philosophy.  .  .  And  even  the  power 
invested  in  the  apostles  to  work  miracles  of  mercy  will  be  again  in- 
vested in  men  to  do  the  same.  .  .  Was  not  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son 


48  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

The  time  was  fulfilled ;  history  was  ripe  for  the  vindica- 
tion of  God's  word,  the  fulfillment  of  the  "  sure  word  of 
prophesy "  and  the  answer  to  Wesley's  prayer.  "  Truth 
sprung  out  of  the  earth  "  and  the  sealed  book  of  Isaiah's 
prophesy,  containing  the  word  of  God  to  his  people  upon 
this  continent  is  revealed ;  righteousness  looks  down  from 
heaven,  and  the  everlasting  and  unchangable  gospel  that 
can  alone  reveal  it  is  delivered  according  to  the  promise  of 
the  prophets,  of  Jesus,  and  of  John  on  Patmos  Isle,  by  angel 
ministry  to  Joseph  Smith. 

"Our  land,"  the  land  of  David  and  his  forefathers,  the  land 
of  Palestine,  after  centuries  of  curse  and  waste  and  Gentile 
devastation,  again  through  the  miraculously  restored  early 
and  later  rains  "  yields  her  increase.  " 


of  God,  and  the  true  light  of  the  world,  better  qualified  to  reveal  the 
duty,  interest,  and  destiny  of  man  than  mesmeric  clairvoyants?  Was 
he  not  better  qualified  for  this  work  than  the  psychological  mediums  of 
the  present  day,  or  the  spirits  they  invoke?" 

Page  174:  "All  future  revelation,  therefore,  must  regard  the  mak- 
ing known  to  mankind  how  the  doctrinal  truths  recorded  in  the  Scrip- 
tures are  to  be  understood?  .  .  On  this  subject  Emmanuel  Sweden- 
borg  was  consistent,  who  undertook  to  explain  how  the  Scriptures 
should  be  understood  by  man.  And  although  I  am  not  of  his  faith, 
yet  I  confess  that  his  powers  were  immense  as  his  gifts  were  wonderful. 

"I  entertained  strong  expectations  that  Mr.  Davis  (Andrew  Jack- 
son) would  follow  on,  and  advance  the  work,  but  was  disappointed 
when  his  'Nature's  Divine  Revelations'  appeared,  and  I  am  moreover 
satisfied  that  some  neit  revelation,  as  regards  the  true  understanding  of 
the  doctrines  oj  the  Saviour,  will  be  revealed  to  the  world. " 

NOTE  BY  THE  AUTHOR — The  reader  is  here  again  earnestly  urged 
to  compare  the  prophecies  and  Scriptures  referred  to  in  support  of  the 
claims  of  the  Palmyra  Seer,  with  the  explanation  of  the  same  texts 
given  in  his  own  works  by  Emmanuel  Swedenborg,  as  well  as  the 
mixed  and  uncertain  revelations  of  A.  J.  Davis  and  other  modern 
"Seers." 


OR,  A  SEQUEL   TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  49, 

A  wicked  and  an  adulterous  generation  :  a  generation  of 
of  hypocritial  professors  of  religion  failing  to  note,  or  to  dis- 
cern these  significant  "signs  of  the  times,"  heaping  to  them- 
selves teachers  having  itching  ears  and  turning  away  from 
the  truth  of  God's  word  as  written  in  their  law  Bible  and 
sounded  by  the  servants  of  God,,  placing  their  fingers  in  their 
ears  and  shouting,  "Joe  Smith,"  Mormon  delusion,  beware 
of  false  prophets  ! 

And  for  this  cause  has  God  permitted  strong  delusions  in. 
these  last  days  to  be  sent  among  them,  that  they  might  be 
led  to  believe  a  lie  that  they  might  be  dammed,  "  because 
they  have  pleasure  in  unrighteousness,"  i.  e.,  to  say — they 
are  not  willing  to  submit  to  the  righteousness  that  is  in  the 
gospel,  but  having  gone  about,  as  did  the  Jew  in  Paul's  dayr 
to  establish  by  any  kind  of  method  "their  own  righteousness," 
the  religious  world  is  now  being  subjected  to  every  form 
of  deception  in  the  employment  of  forces  occult  to  human, 
minds,  but  known  to  the  "  Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,* 


*  PSYCHIC  INVESTIGATION  ;  A  NEW  ASSOCIATION  FORMED  AT  BOSTON, 
BOSTON,  Feb.  10,  1890. — A  movement  has  been  started  in  Boston  by 
men  of  high  standing  for  the  investigation  and  study  of  physic  phenom- 
ena. A  prospectus  has  been  issued  signed  among  others  by  Rev. 
M.  J.  Savage  of  the  Church  of  the  Unity,  Rev.  E.  A.Horton  of  the  Sec- 
ond Congregational  Church,  Rev.  Heber  Newton  of  All  Souls'  Epis- 
copal Church,  New  York ;  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale  of  Boston,  Mary  A.  Liv- 
ermore  of  Melrose,  B.  O.  Flower,  editor  of  the  Arena,  and  Rev.  T. 
E.  Allen,  of  the  Fourth  Unitarian  Society,  Providence. 

The  prospectus  states:  "We  only  propose  to  concentrate  our 
efforts  on  the  narrower  field  of  spiritualism,  pure  and  simple. 
That  modern  spiritualism  has  votaries  in  all  parts  of  our  coun- 
try, and  that  it  has  the  power  to  influence  the  thought  and  action 
of  those  who  believe  its  teachings,  are  indisputable  facts.  Is 
the  movement  founded  on  fact  or  delusion?  Does  the  world 
know?  And  if  it  does  not  know,  is  is  not  time  for  a  few  truth- 
loving  persons  approaching  the  subject  in  a  serious  frame  of  mind  te>. 


50  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

the  spirit  that  now  worketh  in  the  hearts  of  the  children  of 
disobedience."     (Epn.  ii,  1:3.) 

It  will  be  seen  by  this  reference  that  the  heavens  are  now 
to  be  penetrated,  if  at  all,  "  by  a  purely  scientific  method. 
•Correct :  "If  any  man  will  do  .  .  he  shall  know,"  that's 
all  that  Franklin,  Morse  or  Edison  has  done,  but  they 
-didn't  establish  the  laws  themselves  or  make  them,  they 
simply  discovered  and  conformed  to  them — God's  law  in 
nature  and  the  ph}Tsical  world.  But  it  makes  all  the  differ- 
•ence  in  the  world  what  law  we  apply  in  spiritual  things. 
Natural  law  cannot  solve  spiritual  problems.  For 

"  After  that  in  the  wisdom  of  God  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not 
<God,  it  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them  that 
believe."  (I  COR.  i,  21.) 

Jesus  Christ  promised  the  world  through  revelation  to  hi  s 
servant  John,  that  an  fingel  would  fly  to  earth  "  having  the 
everlasting  gospel  to  preach  to  men  that  dwell  on  the  earth." 

Our  proclamation  to  these  men,  and  to  all  the  world,  is 
that  the  angel  has  flown,  and  that  we  are  appointed  to 
•declare  this  message,  and  to  offer,  not  simply  a  "  sign  "  to 
•disobedient  or  unbeliever,  but  a  law  of  test  by  which  in 
the  rational  employment  of  all  the  forces  of  the  soul,  the 
intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  in  man,  he  may  as  certainly 
test  the  truth  of  the  propositions  that  we  present  as  Morse 
<or  Edison  may  test  their  applications  of  natural  law. 

•investigate  it,  guided  by  a  purely  scientific  method?  Is  it  not  in  the 
ibest  interest  of  humanity  that  this  matter  should  be  settled,  if  possible, 
•once  for  all?  If  it  be  delusion,  the  contagion  has  spread  quite  far 
•  enough,  and  done  damage  enough  already.  If  there  be  truth  in 
it,  the  world  will  be  benefited  by  the  knowledge.  With  this  feeling 
•the  signers  have  decided  to  issue  this  appeal,  asking  you  to  join  with 
them  in  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  Psychic  Investigation  Association. 
<(See  also  Appendix.) 


OR,  A  SEQUEL  TO  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.  51 

"  If  any  man  will  do,  he  shall  know,"  so  say  we — we 
challenge  the  world  to  proof  of  a  single  failure — can  we  say 
more? 

"  He  that  hath  my  commandments,  and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that 
loveth  me;  and  he  that  loveth  me  shall  be  loved  of  my  father  and  I 
will  love  him,  and  will  manifest  myself  to  him." — JOHN  xiv  :2i. 

"And  I  will  pray  the  father  and  he  shall  give  you  another  comforter 
that  he  may  abide  with  you  forever,  even  the  spirit  of  truth,  whom  the 
'world  cannot  receive, — i6th  verse. 

The  reception  of  this  power  and  gift  by  the  waiting 
disciples  1800  years  ago  was  proof  of  Christ's  mission. 

"Judas  said  unto  him,  not  Iscariot,  Lord,  how  is  it  that  thou  wilt 
manifest  thyself  unto  us,  and  not  unto  the  world?" 

That  is  the  question  the  world  with  Judas  is  asking 
to-day.  How  does,  or  will,  God — if  thereis  one — manifest 
or  reveal  himself  ?  " 

"Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  If  a  man  love  me  he  will  keep 
my  words," — and  not  forget  or  ignore  them, — "and  my  Father  will 
love  him,  and  we  will  take  up  our  abode  with  him."— JOHN  xiv:  22-23. 

Reader,  what  company  do  you  entertain  ?  What  kind  of 
men  or  spirits.  Who  or  what  do  you  harbor  within  your  soul 
as  companions  or  teachers  ? 

Take  heed  that  no  man  deceive  you ;  and  beware  of 
seducing  spirits  ! 

How  common  a  thing  to  hear  it  said,  "  I  know  that  my 
Redeemer  liveth."  How  do  they  know?  How  may  we — how 
do  we  who  have  obeyed  the  latter  day  message — know  that 
our  Redeemer  liveth?  "  Answer  : 

Because  we  have  heard  from  him  in  this  generation. 
The  wires  of  communication  that  Constantine  and  the  Popes 
have  thrown  down,  and  Protestant  refuses  to  put  up,  saying 
they  are  not  needed,  or  are  seeking  through  familiar  spirits 
to  satisfy  the  lack  of  gospel  revelation  to  themselves — are 
again  in  order  and  we  know  who  is  at  the  other  end  of  the 


$2  THE  SEER  OF  PALMYRA  ; 

line,  for  it  is  the  voice  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  who  in  con- 
tradiction of  men  and  seducing  spirits  says, 

"  If  ye  continue  in  my  word  then  are  ye  my  disciples  indeed,  and 
ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free.  " 

«'  SEARCH  THE  SCRIPTURES." 


THE  END. 


NOTE. — We  have  referred  for  proof  to  a  few  only  of  the  many 
Biblical  and  to  none  of  the  multiplied  archaeological  evidences  which 
a  study  of  American  prehistoric  ruin  furnishes. 

These  may  be  obtained  by  addressing  Herald  office,  Lamoni,  Iowa, 
in  "  Baldwin's  Ancient  America,"  "  Presidency  and  Priesthood,"  by 
W.  H.  Kelley,  and  other  similar  works. 


APPENDIX, 


IN  the  Banner  of  Light,  a  paper  devoted  to,  and  pub- 
lished in  the  interest  of  spiritualism,  among  the  ques- 
tions answered  through  the  trance  mediumship  of  Mr. 
W.  J.  Colville,  is  the  following  by  M.  Hamilton.  "  Question  : 
— It  is  claimed  by  some  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  divinely 
inspired,  and  that  Joseph  Smith  was  ordained  to  the  Aaronic 
priesthood;  is  there  any  truth  in  these  statements,  and  if 
Smith  was  ordained,  by  whom  was  it  done  ?  Answer  : — If 
Smith  was  ordained  to  the  Aaronic  priesthood,  he  was  or- 
dained to  the  priesthood  of  a  by  gone  dispensation  ;  therefore 
ordained  to  something  thousands  of  years  behind  his  time. 
If  he  was  ordained  to  this  priesthood  by  anyone,  he  could 
have  been  ordained  only  by  the  spirits  of  departed  Jews, 
who  had  not  unfolded  out  of  the  Israelitish  sphere  into  the 
sphere  of  the  universal  heavens.  Undoubtedly  Joseph  Smith 
was  a  medium,  and  reflected  the  ideas  of  a  company  of 
spirits  in  spirit-life,  who  were  ancient  polygamists.  No 
doubt  they  were  those  connected  with  the  Israelitish  dispen- 
sation, as  polygamy  was  undoubtedly  the  practice  of  Solomon 
and  many  of  the  leading  kings  of  Judea.  We  regard  Joseph 
Smith  as  a  medium ;  and  the  Book  of  Mormon  as  inspired, 
yet  not  inspired  by  the  highest  spiritual  intelligence — not  in- 
spired by  intelligence  equal  to  your  degree  of  intelligence 
here  in  this  mortal  body,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  in 
Boston." 

In  the  above  communication  is  revealed  something  of  the 
uncertainly  that  characterizes  a  great  many  communications 
professedly,  (and  really,  I  believe),  from  spirit  source ;  un- 


54  APPENDIX. 

fortunately,  however,  these  spirits  seem  to  have  progressed 
in  a  crab  fashion,  (backward),  sort  of  a  way,  or  they  should 
have  learned  what  a  great  many  mortals  have  learned,  and 
others  might  learn,  by  a  little  personal  investigation  of  the 
revelations  of  Joseph  Smith,  or  the  Book  of  Mormon ;  that 
Joseph  Smith  if  a  medium,  reflected  in  his  spiritual  claims 
something  other  than  "  The  ideas  of  spirits  in  spirit  life,  who 
were  ancient  polygamists,"  as  it  is  well  known  to  readers  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  that  there  is  not  a  religious  volume  in 
the  world  that  condemns  in  stronger  terms,  than  does  this- 
book,  the  crime  of  polygamy. 

It  was  time  for  God,  if  there  was  any,  to  speak.     He  has- 
spoken  ;  but  Joseph  Smith,  nor  any  of  the  servants  of  God,, 
have  not  only  had  men  and  doctrines  of  men,  but  devils  and 
doctrines  of  devils  to  contend  against.     If  there  are  spirits 
at  all,  why  may  there  not  be  seducing  spirits  with  seductive 
doctrines   to  contend   against?     Any  day  or  night,  in  the 
city  of  Boston,  you  can  get  a  revelation  from  the  "  angel 
world,"  to  dovetail  with  the  moral  status  and  desire  of  the 
individual,  attended,  too,  with  "signs"  and  "phenomena,'*" 
that  will  make  the  hair  of  the   uninitiated   stand   on   end. 
Spiritualism  is  making  thousands  of  proselytes,  devotees  too,, 
who  do  not  appear  at  their  public  meetings  or  lectures,  but 
are  seen  Sunday  in  the  fashionable  churches ;  but  who,  sub 
rosa,  consult  familiar  spirits,  ordered  up  on  short  notice  by 
the  payment  of  the  necessary  fee,  in  regard  to  dead  friends, 
lost  property,  bodily  sickness,  etc.,  "Signs,"   which  Jesus- 
said  an  adulterous  and  wicked  generation  sought  after,  and 
which   should  be   given,  though  "not  unto  salvation."     I 
admit  that   spiritualism  has  produced   an  argument  which 
may   be   nard  to  explain    on   any   hypothesis  but  that  of 
immortality,  or  life  after  death  ;   but  under  what  condition, 
or  rule,  or  estate,  is  life  in  the  future  to  be  administered  ? 
The  revelations  through  mediums  from  Maine  to  California,. 


APPENDIX.  55 

are  as  vague,  dreamy,  unsubstantial,  contradictory,  so  utterly 
unlike  the  hopes  of  the  prophets,  Jesus,  his  apostles,  and  of 
the  final  "  inheritance "  that  their  appeals  to  scripture 
support  only  reveals  to  the  true  Latter  Day  Saint  their  real 
character.  I  recognize  their  power  of  seership  and  reality 
of  "  signs "  and  "  wonders,"  performed  through  trance 
speakers  and  physical  mediumship.  Nations  and  rulers  of 
nations  have  entertained  themselves  of  them.  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, king  of  the  earth,  did  not  retain  them  at  his  court 
simply  as  performers  of  ledgerdemain,  or  slight  of  hand ; 
no  more  does  England's  queen  to-day,  but  to  confound 
them  with  the  seership  or  mission  of  Joseph  Smith,  is 
ignorance  ;  to  place  their  revelations  thousands  of  years  in 
advance  of  his  calling,  is  the  baldest  absurdity,  and  reveals 
to  me,  either  that  those  spirits,  if  other  than  men,  instead  of 
being  "  advanced,"  are  altogether  too  ignorant  of  known  facts 
to  be  valuable  instructors  ;  or  that  they  belong  to  that  order, 
who,  having  "kept  not  their  first  estate,"  are  roaming 
unseen,  as  subjects  of  the  "  Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air," 
whom  Jesus  referred  to,  when  he  said,  "  I  saw  Satan  fall 
as  lightning  from  heaven,"  and  who  having  failed  there, 
his  next  theatre  of  action  was  this  globe  of  ours. 

"  Beware  of  false  prophets  that  come  to  you  in  sheeps'  clothing." 
Spiritualism  and  "  Mormonism "  are  no  more  alike  in 
reality  or  internally — than  are  the  two  animals  designated. 
The  angels  or  spirits  proposing  to  give  the  world  infor- 
mation through  spiritualistic  mediums  concerning  Joseph 
Smith  and  the  Book  of  Mormon,  have  either  purposely  or 
ignorantly  taken  their  cue  from  popular  stories  and  litera- 
ture against  the  "  Mormons,"  and  evidently  either  know  as 
little  concerning  that  which  the  Scriptures  reveal  regarding 
the  work  of  Joseph  Smith,  as  they  do  of  the  prophecies  in 
relation  to  Jesus  Christ ;  or  knowing,  are  careful  and  cer- 
tain to  give  to  the  world  through  their  "  control  "  or  "  me- 


56  APPENDIX. 

diums,"  any  plausible,  or  even  patronizing  explanation  that 
avoids  the  truth,  or  that  shall  reveal  their  hostility  to  the 
mission  of  Jesus  Christ  or  his  servants. 

While  at  Lake  Cassadaga,  in  western  New  York,  last  sum- 
mer, I  listened  to  eulogies  of  heathen  philosophers  and  even 
Protestant  reformers,  but  not  a  word  of  rational  explanation 
of  the  mission  of  a  man  whose  claims  to  marvelous, 
miraculous  and  unique  manifestation  so  far  transcends 
the  history  of  any  modern  seer  or  "  medium "  as  a 
spiritual  marvel  or  phenomenon  as  should  challenge 
or  demand  from  these  "  advanced  spirits "  a  rational 
and  truthful  explanation  of  the  real  design  and  char- 
acter of  the  work  of  the  Seer  of  Palmyra.  Let  not  the 
reader  be  deceived.  The  gracious  and  patronizing  air 
with  which  these  "  spirits,"  when  pressed  for  explanation  of 
the  mission  of  Joseph  Smith,  relegate  him  to  the  ranks  of 
a  fourth-rate  mediumship  that  reflects  only  stale  and  ex- 
ploded myths  of  ancient  Bible  literature  and  of  the  claim 
of  divinity  for  the  mission  and  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ,  is 
a  trick  of  the  adversary  of  men's  souls,  and  should  deceive 
only  the  ignorant  or  wilful,  and  not  the  lover  of  or  honest 
seeker  after  truth. 

While  visiting  friends  at  this  great  camp  of  honest  spirit- 
ualistic believers,  humbugs,  and  creed-disgusted  investi- 
gators, myself  and  Mrs.  Bond  attended,  one  evening,  a 
"seance"  of  Mr.  Keeler — whose  gospel,  like  the  popular 
orthodox  ones,  is  not  without  money  or  without  price — and 
were  treated  to  a  clever  piece  of  juggling,  whether  of  men, 
or  spirits,  or  both,  we  need  not  here  say,  (as  to  the  mind 
of  the  writer  no  amount  of  signs  or  wonders  can  be  safely 
made  to  take  the  place  of  facts,  and  that  humbuggery, 
through  either  men  or  spirits,  are  to  be  equally  avoided), — 
but  which  we  paid  for,  as  a  joint  exhibition  of  Mr.  Keeler, 


APPENDIX,  57 

who  resides  in  the  flesh,  and  his  spiritual  partner,  George 
Christy,  who,  though  long  since  gone  to  the  angel  world,  is  still 
in  the  minstrel  show  business  at  the  old  price,  fifty  cents  a 
head  admission,  with  Mr.  Keeler  as  manager,  treasurer  and 
banker  on  earth,  etc. 

Of  what  we  saw  and  heard  we  can  write  but  little.  It  is 
not  our  purpose.  We  saw,  however,  what  others  saw  and 
handled,  and  said  were  spirit  hands,  etc.  We,  however, 
got  no  opportunity  to  shake  hands  with  friends  who 
have  passed  over.  Evidently  we  hadn't  faith,  or  the  spirits 
thought  they  couldn't  trust  us.  I'm  afraid  they  couldn't ; 
for  we  had  made  up  our  mind  that  if  we  got  hold  of  that 
spirit  hand,  we  should  have  retained  it  long  enough,  and 
familiar  enough  to  perhaps  have  bred  contempt  and 
unpleasantness. 

After  the  "seance,"  and  while  going  to  our  lodging  place, 
we  were  accosted  by  a  gentlemen  and  lady  who  had  also 
attended  the  exhibition  of  Mr.  Keeler  that  evening.  A  con- 
versation ensued  regarding  what  was  seen,  the  probable 
nature  and  character  of  the  manifestations,  etc.,  etc.,  and 
the  gentleman  who  proved  to  be  a  firm  believer  in  spiritual- 
ism, but  whose  wife  was  not,  after  learning  that  I  was  an 
unbeliever,  enquired  as  to  what  explanations  I  could  give  in 
regard  to  what  I  had  seen,  etc.  While  not  anxious  for  a 
controversy,  I  considered  his  question  a  fair  one.  and  be- 
lieving him  to  be  what  I  afterwards  learned  to  be  true, 
that  he  was  an  honest  as  well  as  an  influential  man,  I  frankly 
told  him  my  belief,  and  my  occupation  as  a  minister  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  declared  to  them  my  belief  that  if  they 
were  manifestations  of  spirits  at  all,  they  were  the  anti- 
christ spirits  of  devils,  and  not  dead  men  who  were  work- 
ing miracles  in  these  last  days  to  deceive  the  honest  and 
unwary,  and  that  as  an  authorized  minister  of  Jesus  Christ 
it  was  given  us  to  understand  who  and  what  these  spirits  were, 


58  APPENDIX. 

with  their  tricks,  etc.  Immediately  this  gentleman  became 
seized  with  a  power  or  control,  and  broke  forth  in  a  violent 
and,  to  all  save  myself,  unknown  tongue,  causing  him  also 
to  gesticulate  violently  and  threateningly  toward  me,  and 
totally  unlike  the  demeanor  of  the  man  who  naturally  de- 
ported himself  in  a  very  quiet  and  gentlemanly  way. 

As  the  harangue  which  this  power  delivered  to  me  through 
the  control  of  this  man  proceeded  I  perceived  its  nature 
and  interpretation,  which  was  concentrated  in  a  word  and 
in  import,  simply  the  speech  of  the  devils  to  Jesus  Christ. 
"Why  art  thou  come  to  torment  us?"  "Why  are  you  here 
upon  these  grounds  to  molest  and  to  make  us  trouble,  etc, 
etc." 

This  gentleman  immediately  upon  being  loosed  from 
this  control  began  an  apology  to  me  for  his  violent  manner 
etc.,  when  he  was  seized  again  in  the  same  manner,  and  with 
difficulty  was  enabled  to  cease,  breaking  out  at  intervals 
as  we  walked  along.  He  again  with  his  wife,  who  was  a 
church  member,  apologized  before  we  parted,  and  again 
also  the  next  morning  came  to  our  cottage  with  further  ex- 
planation and  apology,  which  we  assured  him  over  and  again 
was  unnecessary,  as  that,  no  matter  how  hostile  was  his 
guest  that  he  had  entertained  the  night  before,  to  us,  to 
honest  men  everywhere,  no  matter  what  their  belief,  we 
were,  and  are,  sincerely  their  friend. 

M.  H.  BOND. 

PROVIDENCE,  R.  I.,  March  13,  1891. 


